Politics and implications on the COVID-19 health systems preparedness: the Malawian experience

Abstract

The spread of the COVID-19 disease to Africa has raised concerns around the resultant effects on the fragile and no-resilient health systems. Malawi reported its first COVID-19 cases early April 2020 at the time of the country’s political turmoil as the courts ruled for a re-run of presidential elections in July 2020 due to irregularities observed in the May 2019 elections. Therefore, assessing the implications of politics on the COVID-19 health systems preparedness is critical to design health systems strengthening efforts during the pandemic. We applied WHO health systems framework to assess the implications of politics on the COVID-19 on the Malawi health systems preparedness. There is population’s lack of trust in government hampering government efforts, which poses as a huge concern for Malawi to navigate through the pandemic including the health systems preparedness for the pandemic. This, coupled with mass demonstrations by the public disagreeing with the Lockdown and health service providers put across their COVID-19 related demands. Political environment and the trust people have in government is a critical determinant of how a country responds to a pandemic. In a pandemic situation like COVID-19, government’s ability in coordinating the various key stakeholders while instilling trust in people remain critical in strengthening health systems to contain and mitigate the pandemic. However, the Malawi political turmoil highlighted in this paper derails the process and efforts to contain the pandemic and timely prepare the health systems. Therefore, it is important to consider the effects of political challenges in supporting the country’s health system to prepare for such pandemics.