By Talkmore Gandiwa
The Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), with support from the World Bank and Cordaid Zimbabwe, has launched a Digital Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) to strengthen accountability and transparency in Zimbabwe’s healthcare sector.
The digital GRM aims to rebuild public trust, improve responsiveness, and enhance the quality of service delivery within the country’s strained health system. Zimbabwe’s healthcare has long struggled with underinvestment, contributing to poor service delivery and prompting a significant brain drain of healthcare professionals to countries with better working conditions.
In a statement, the World Bank said the GRM is a vital component of ongoing efforts under the Health Sector Development Support Project – Additional Financing VI and the Zimbabwe COVID-19 Response and Essential Health Services Project (ZCREHSP). These initiatives aim to expand health coverage, improve quality, and build institutional capacity across Zimbabwe.
“The platform serves multiple purposes: responding to beneficiary needs by addressing grievances, engaging communities through inquiries and suggestions, and promoting transparency by deterring fraud and mitigating project risks,” said the Bank.
While the Ministry already operated a GRM system—including a hotline and partnerships with health committees—past challenges like underutilized suggestion boxes and manual documentation highlighted the need for a digital upgrade.
The new digital GRM enhances these efforts with features like: A smiley-based Likert scale for quick service ratings, a “General Feedback” function for free-text input, multichannel access via mobile apps and public feedback booths to include even remote and marginalized communities.
The dashboard’s advanced features include: Spatial mapping to identify regional satisfaction trends, facility benchmarking to compare service performance, graph analysis to detect patterns and clusters in facility feedback.
This wealth of data allows health managers and policymakers to make evidence-based decisions, target interventions, and monitor progress against key performance indicators, including client satisfaction.
The digital transition has already delivered tangible benefits: faster response times, improved accessibility, especially in remote areas, and data-driven improvements in service delivery. The system’s design, co-created with MoHCC technical experts, ensures alignment with Zimbabwe’s national health goals and supports institutional accountability at all levels.
In an era of economic challenges and public health demands, the digital GRM represents a transformative leap toward community-centered, transparent, and accountable healthcare in Zimbabwe.
