In their study titled “‘We thought supporting was strengthening’: re-examining the role of external assistance for health systems strengthening in Zimbabwe post-COVID-19,” Alison T. Mhazo and Charles C. Maponga delve into the impact of external assistance on Zimbabwe’s health system since the early 2000s.
Published in Health Policy and Planning on June 20, 2024, the article investigates whether external funding has genuinely strengthened the health system by enabling comprehensive changes to performance drivers or merely supported it by boosting inputs and service coverage in the short term. Through in-depth key informant interviews and document reviews conducted between August and October 2022, the authors explore the dichotomy between support and strengthening, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed significant systemic bottlenecks and highlighted the fragility and unsustainability of external funding. The study underscores the need for Zimbabwe to prioritise domestic resource mobilisation for health system strengthening and for external funders to reassess the true impact of their contributions on the national health system.