Here are some tips and key considerations in the roll-out of this Toolkit:
If you decide to embark on launching a social franchising model, we highly recommend that you designate at least one person in your MA to take the lead on guiding this process. You will see this as a key objective in Stage 2.
In the initial setup of the franchise system, you should always conduct a small pilot before planning for greater scale. The pilot allows you to test the design and incorporate learnings, as well as mitigate risk.
While Stages 4 through 6 are presented in a sequential format for simplicity, in reality this process will be iterative, as after the initial pilot, you will be continually recruiting, training, and supporting new franchisees into the network in conjunction with your ongoing operations.
You should place emphasis on maintaining a high-quality franchise network at every Stage – particularly after scaling up, given scale presents the highest risk to consistent quality.
Planning for and monitoring the sustainability of the franchise network is crucial to maintaining a franchise network. This comes up within the process during Stages 1, 2, and 7, but should be kept in mind throughout your journey.
Observe the overarching goals of the IPPF social franchising model and the social franchising for health metrics as a common framework and identify additional ways it can be applied throughout this process and implementation of the Toolkit. The metrics include: access, equity, quality, cost-effectiveness, additionality and sustainability.
Here are key terms to know before getting started:
‘Social franchising’ – Social Franchising in IPPF applies to the development of a formal partnership between an IPPF MA and a privately-owned health facility to provide specific sexual and reproductive health services by skilled health workers in line with quality standards.
‘IPPF social franchising model’ – The operational guidelines for MAs to follow to implement social franchising in their respective geographies.
‘Franchisor’ – In this case, the IPPF MA acts as the franchisor, and has a written agreement with the private provider, who becomes the franchisee. The MA provides technical support, including training in delivery of core services (i.e. family planning); access to a franchise brand and potentially also access to extra support through demand generation, and monitoring for quality of care strengthening.
‘Franchisee’ – An individual private provider that has been selectively recruited to join an MAs social franchise. In exchange for the support from the MA, the franchisee agrees to: provide services as agreed in compliance with national quality of care standards at a minimum, working towards IPPF standards, submit regular reports on service statistics (e.g. # of users), and use franchise brand.
‘Franchise’ or ‘Franchise network’ – A network of franchisees managed by one MA.
‘Franchise Support Package’ – The specific support, resources, training provided by the MA to its franchisees. The components of the franchise package may vary between MAs.
‘Value Proposition’ – The features of your franchise package, network and brand that attract the franchisee to your franchise. This is your promise of value to be delivered, for example: quality improvement and service expansion, affordable commodities, increased client flow and improved business sustainability.
‘Lean Experimentation’ – A design approach that focuses on swiftly turning new ideas for products or services into iterative experiments that rely on client feedback rather than focusing on elaborate planning up front. Lean Experimentation will come in handy when designing your franchise support package and value proposition, allowing you to find the best solution for your franchisees by quickly testing different offerings and iterating your design to best meet the needs of providers.
