Research Article: Stewardship configuration and medicines governance under fiscal stress: lessons from Botswana's 2025 health emergency
Abstract:
Botswana's health system has been characterized in terms of its handling of HIV/AIDS and the comparability of public-sector delivery. These characterizations have pretty good bedrock. The 2025 declaration of an official public health emergency, after disruptions of the supply of almost all essential medicines, threw a spanner in the works. Public discourse changed in response. The conversation now became primarily about budgetary and supply chain procurement challenges. While these were concerns, there were several other issues, the most troubling being the absence of a systemic response to the multiple challenges and warnings that had been identified. We argue that the systemic response evidenced largely by the empty coffers and the absence of innovation-crisis stewardship indicates a concentration of executive authority in an overwhelmingly clinical, militarized, and potentially damaging supply zone.
The analysis is grounded in the reviewed literature on health system governance and the system's lens that has been used to decenter public knowledge on the surface of recurring, persistent, and self-reinforcing institutional logics. The analysis is further informed by governance and decision theory, particularly the principal-agent theory, to identify likely facilitative mechanisms.
Looking at the medicines shortage with this lens, there was a steady, predictable, and alarming succession of steps: signals were allowed to build, no corrective measures were taken, and emergency procedures were instituted and outside assistance was used, in particular, to stabilize the situation. Some of the more immediate and focused assistance from the United Nations was additional evidence of the absence of medicines caused by the routine care of the government. Central Medical Stores and hospital-level accountability were being discussed, and the absence of integration and accountability among the many professional areas likely caused delays in critical situations. The HIV governance arrangements of Botswana at that time illustrate an improvement in the ability to both detect and respond to the situation in a more consolidated fashion.
The governing stress test of the 2025 episode is more significant than a one-off operational failure. Aimed at preventing the same situation from happening, further measures are needed that integrate clinical approval with management and financial administration, reinforce emergency measures, and create an environment of learning to influence the medicines system. Although some of the planned initiatives may have an impact, the authority and accountability gaps will continue to be the main issues that concern the leadership.
Introduction:
Botswana's health system has been characterized in terms of its handling of HIV/AIDS and the comparability of public-sector delivery. These characterizations have pretty good bedrock. The 2025 declaration of an official public health emergency, after disruptions of the supply of almost all essential medicines, threw a spanner in the works. Public discourse changed in response. The conversation now became primarily about budgetary and supply chain procurement challenges. While these were concerns, there were…
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