The National Health Strategy for Zimbabwe: 2016-2020

Abstract

This strategic plan has been developed through a participative and consultative process involving significant contributions and support from various individuals and institutions. A specific Technical Task Team (TTT) was established to drive preparatory activities towards this strategy. The TTT established Technical Working Groups (TWG) to focus on specific strategic pillars. Various stakeholder workshops were conducted with health workers, community leaders, development partners, government agencies and communities. The TTT also conducted a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis based on the inputs from these stakeholders. The SWOT analysis provided qualitative evidence on the status of the health sector. In addition, a Bottleneck Analysis (BNA) was conducted on selected tracer conditions to unpack the underlying bottlenecks and root causes to observed health system performance challenges. The results of the SWOT analysis and the BNA, together with a comprehensive review of the performance of the previous strategy exploring what worked and what did not was used to identify sector priorities and hence remedial strategies. The Plan provides the framework that will guide the efforts of the Ministry of Health and Child Care and all stakeholders over the next 5 years in contributing to the attainment of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio-Economic Transformation and the Sustainable Development Goals. The successful implementation of this plan will depend on the continued dedication of staff in the Ministry of Health and Child Care and those of its partner institutions. As a strategic policy document that we have put together, it is my sincere hope that it will become the single most important point of reference for design of service delivery programmes, resource mobilization and health financing framework, as it outlines how as Zimbabweans we will reach our dream of delivering high quality health services to the citizens. I therefore wish to extend my sincere appreciation to all those that contributed to the process of developing this plan. I wish to pay special tribute to the members of the technical team and members of the technical working groups for their significant inputs and commitment to this process. On behalf of the Ministry of Health and Child Care, I also wish to acknowledge the financial and technical support rendered to us by our Development Partners. Without the direction and valuable support of our Cooperating Partners, we could not have managed to successfully complete this plan. Finally, I wish to thank all the members of staff of the Ministry of Health, and Child Care, line ministries, Community representatives and NGOs, for their participation, contributions and support to the process of formulating this strategic plan.