By Adelyn Wangusi
Amref Health Africa has launched the COVID-19 Response Governance Mapping Initiative, a study on the sustainability and effectiveness of COVID-19 response efforts implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Malawi.
The initiative is a joint project between researchers based at AMREF International University (Kenya). The University of Edinburgh (Scotland), the Somali Institute of Development Research and Analysis, the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), the University of Kinshasa (the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the National Institute of Public Health in Burundi, the University of Sydney (Australia), and UC Louvain (Belgium).
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the challenges in health systems and demonstrated the importance of strong and effective governance in response efforts. As such, the study examined the pandemic response governance under three levels of information: political and legal order, key actors involved, and t