Health Ecosystem Resilience Strategies for Inclusive Development

Introduction

Recently, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted the attention of the general public media, healthcare providers, and policymakers with a special focus on health ecosystem resilience. The application of the resilience concept in the health sector is regarded as the mechanism to deal with acute health shocks like natural disasters and pandemics. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed poor health resilience in Africa. The lack of sound resilience mechanisms was unearthed as substantiated by a lack of health disaster preparedness (Economist Impact, 2022; World Health Organisation, 2022). There was a shortage of personal protective clothing (PPE), a shortage of high-quality medical workforce, poor health infrastructure, competition, and the existence of socio-economic disparities.

In light of the above, many African governments were negatively affected by COVID-19 in the sense that they faced challenges of budget overruns since unexpected health expenditures were incurred by the governments in trying to minimize the impact of this deadly disease. This has further led to an upsurge in domestic and international government debts (Economist Impact, 2022). This implies that building health resilience through massive investments in the health ecosystem is more important than before. Without robust health systems in Africa, the future is dominated by health challenges that compromise the resilience and sustainability of health ecosystems resilience (Dzingirai, 2023). With investment in health ecosystem resilience, it is of great importance to observe resilience dividend in the health sector (Blanchet et al., 2017; Kruk et al., 2017; Kruk et al., 2015; World Health Organisation, 2015). The resilience dividend can be in the form of mitigation of health costs related to health pandemics, improved economic, health, and social outcomes, and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, health ecosystem resilience is beneficial in terms of addressing SDG 3 which is related to good health and wellbeing. The general public is expected to respond effectively and efficiently to health shocks and threats. As such, expanding access to health care through investing in health ecosystem capacity can lead to universal healthcare coverage.

In an attempt to build health ecosystem resilience, the Zimbabwean government launched the Health Resilient Fund (HRF), which is a pool of financial resources for effectively achieving universal health coverage. Moreso, this HRF was launched alongside the National Health Strategy (NHS) 2021-2025 as well as the National Health Sector Coordination Framework (HSCF). The international donors who contributed to HRF are the United Kingdom, the Government of Ireland, and the European Union while the Ministry of Health and Childcare, UNICEF, WHO, and UNFPA focus on the implementation of HRF in Zimbabwe (Chibwanda, 2023). Notably, Midlands State University and UNICEF entered into a collaboration agreement on promoting resilience among children living with disabilities in Zimbabwe (UNICEF, 2022). More interestingly, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) is engaging in building health resilience by increasing schools’ capacity for disaster response and preparedness in conjunction with other government departments and ministries like the Department of Civil Protection, Ministry of Health and Childcare, and UNICEF. Given the lessons learned in the 2008 cholera outbreak, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) education in various schools across the country ensures the availability of clean drinking water, promotes lifelong health, improves sanitation facilities, enhances children’s well-being, and provides safe learning environments for children.