Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in Zimbabwe
Background: Global health partnerships (GHPs) have flourished across Africa as alternative governance mechanisms seeking to strengthen local health systems for effective national planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Mutual and trust-based relationships anticipate fostering relations...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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AOSIS
2023-11-01
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| Series: | African Evaluation Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/693 |
| _version_ | 1797405190344671232 |
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| author | Zacharia Grand Sybert Mutereko |
| author_facet | Zacharia Grand Sybert Mutereko |
| author_sort | Zacharia Grand |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Global health partnerships (GHPs) have flourished across Africa as alternative governance mechanisms seeking to strengthen local health systems for effective national planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Mutual and trust-based relationships anticipate fostering relations that build weak systems for improved availability of data and information for local informed decision-making and programme learning.
Objectives: This article aims to explore and demonstrate how global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships (GHMEPs) are contested spaces contrary to the pervasive collaborative discourse in official government policies.
Method: Data for this study were collected using content analysis of existing documents and key informant interviews for a qualitative case study. Furthermore, monitoring and evaluation (ME) policy documents and key informant interviews with the ME staff from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe, were purposively selected. Ethics clearance was sought from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, HSREC/00002455/2021.
Results: The results show that GHMEPs are contested spaces despite the expectation to foster mutual trust and improved availability of quality data and information for informed decision-making and learning. Evidence shows partner contests through unspectacular soft power strategies to counterbalance resource and power imbalances in partnerships.
Conclusion: The evidence of unspectacular soft power strategies suggests that collaboration for ME conceals and prolongs opportunities for addressing practical and contested challenges, hence failing the test for ideal partnerships.
Contribution: The article contributes to a critical understanding of the limitations of the current theorisation of partnerships, which erroneously assumes trust, mutuality, and equality between resourced and under-resourced partners. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T03:06:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a2ab85fe9bb34070a5eb370b7f50000d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2310-4988 2306-5133 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T03:06:14Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | AOSIS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | African Evaluation Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-a2ab85fe9bb34070a5eb370b7f50000d2023-12-04T07:55:39ZengAOSISAfrican Evaluation Journal2310-49882306-51332023-11-01111e1e1110.4102/aej.v11i1.693192Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in ZimbabweZacharia Grand0Sybert Mutereko1Department of Public Governance, School of Management Information Technology and Governance, University of KwaZulu-Natal, DurbanDepartment of Public Governance, School of Management Information Technology and Governance, University of KwaZulu-Natal, DurbanBackground: Global health partnerships (GHPs) have flourished across Africa as alternative governance mechanisms seeking to strengthen local health systems for effective national planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Mutual and trust-based relationships anticipate fostering relations that build weak systems for improved availability of data and information for local informed decision-making and programme learning. Objectives: This article aims to explore and demonstrate how global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships (GHMEPs) are contested spaces contrary to the pervasive collaborative discourse in official government policies. Method: Data for this study were collected using content analysis of existing documents and key informant interviews for a qualitative case study. Furthermore, monitoring and evaluation (ME) policy documents and key informant interviews with the ME staff from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe, were purposively selected. Ethics clearance was sought from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, HSREC/00002455/2021. Results: The results show that GHMEPs are contested spaces despite the expectation to foster mutual trust and improved availability of quality data and information for informed decision-making and learning. Evidence shows partner contests through unspectacular soft power strategies to counterbalance resource and power imbalances in partnerships. Conclusion: The evidence of unspectacular soft power strategies suggests that collaboration for ME conceals and prolongs opportunities for addressing practical and contested challenges, hence failing the test for ideal partnerships. Contribution: The article contributes to a critical understanding of the limitations of the current theorisation of partnerships, which erroneously assumes trust, mutuality, and equality between resourced and under-resourced partners.https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/693global health partnershipsmonitoring and evaluationgovernancecollaborationinformed decision-makingdiscourseevidencemutual, trustpolicies |
| spellingShingle | Zacharia Grand Sybert Mutereko Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in Zimbabwe African Evaluation Journal global health partnerships monitoring and evaluation governance collaboration informed decision-making discourse evidence mutual, trust policies |
| title | Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in Zimbabwe |
| title_full | Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in Zimbabwe |
| title_fullStr | Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in Zimbabwe |
| title_full_unstemmed | Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in Zimbabwe |
| title_short | Global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in Zimbabwe |
| title_sort | global health monitoring and evaluation partnerships as contested spaces in zimbabwe |
| topic | global health partnerships monitoring and evaluation governance collaboration informed decision-making discourse evidence mutual, trust policies |
| url | https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/693 |
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