Improving access to affordable, high-quality healthcare

Gros plans sur les visages de deux personnes en tenu d'opération — Flickr / Phalinn Ooi

To address health-related challenges, Proparco finances and supports clients involved in promoting long-term improvement in healthcare provision and helps strengthen countries' healthcare systems. The resources mobilised are used to build and upgrade hospitals and private clinics, provide more effective training for healthcare professionals, and develop the pharmaceutical sector.

The economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are still being felt, both in least developed and emerging countries. These are compounded by structural problems such as ageing populations, the increase in chronic diseases and the multiple health impacts of climate change. In this context, Proparco's offering rounds out that of the public sector, helping countries' health services achieve their missions and making them more resilient.

Investing in healthcare systems and infrastructure

Proparco puts all of its expertise and the full range of its support to work to improve sustainable healthcare provision and healthcare access. Its work focuses on financing high-quality healthcare infrastructure that is affordable and accessible to as many people as possible, supporting the development of new speciality treatment (oncology, paediatric surgery) and equipping modern, suitably adapted technical facilities. Proparco is also committed to strengthening diagnostic capabilities by supporting the development of medical biology players, who are especially essential in the event of new pandemics.

Project focus - Supporting the public health sector in Kazakhstan through a public-private partnership

In 2024 and 2025, in partnership with the Kazakh government, Rönesans secured two loans totalling €90 million for the development of a 630-bed multi-purpose public health facility in the city of Kokshetau. The project is co-financed by other investors, including the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), and will provide the entire local population with improved access to high-quality healthcare services.

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Growing the availability of quality medicines

In countries where the availability of medicines is thwarted by high costs and/or deficiencies in supply and distribution systems, Proparco is supporting the development of the pharmaceutical sector. Its action aims to strengthen the value chain – from local production to the distribution of medicines that meet international standards – as close as possible to patients themselves. Proparco's financing directly benefits private sector operators or intermediaries (banks, investment funds) focused on players in the healthcare sector. The Covid pandemic demonstrated the need for countries to develop local production capacities, and Proparco has made this one of its key priorities, particularly in Africa.

Project focus - Strengthening Africa’s pharmaceutical sector

In 2024, Proparco, IFC, DEG (German development finance institution) and DFC (US international development finance corporation) put together a joint €500 million financing package for the South African pharma company Aspen, which plays a key role in boosting the production of medicines and vaccines on the African continent. The loan will be used in particular to improve the distribution of paediatric vaccines and insulin.

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Because the circulation of counterfeit or poor-quality medicines has a terrible impact on people's health, Proparco is investing in the distribution sector to strengthen supply chains and boost the availability of quality products for as many people as possible.

Project focus - Supporting pharmaceutical distributor DIFARE in Ecuador

IDB Invest and Proparco helped pharmaceutical distributor DIFARE to issue Ecuador’s first sustainable development bond, and the first bond of its kind in the country's pharmaceutical sector.

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