Abstract
This editorial provides an overview of the six papers included in this special supplement on health leadership in Africa. Together the papers provide evidence of leadership in public hospital settings and of initiatives to strengthen leadership development. On the one hand, they demonstrate both that current leadership practices often impact negatively on staff motivation and patient care, and that contextual factors underpin poor leadership. On the other hand, they provide some evidence of the positive potential of new forms of participatory leadership, together with ideas about what forms of leadership development intervention can nurture new forms of leadership. Finally, the papers prompt reflection on the research needed to support the implementation of such interventions.
Highlights
This special supplement adds to the still limited knowledge base about health leadership in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and in African settings
This editorial provides an overview of the six papers included in this special supplement on health leadership in Africa
Three papers consider experiences in public hospitals in different countries, and three consider different experiences of health leadership development. Together they add to the smattering of existing empirical and experiential work about African health leadership (Kebede et al 2009; Curry et al 2012; Doherty et al 2013; Chigudu et al 2018; Gilson et al 2014; Kwamie et al 2014; Omaswa and Crisp, 2014; Bradley et al 2015; Choonara et al 2017; Mutale et al 2017)
Summary
• Leadership practices influence staff motivation and team work, with consequences for patient care • Current health system contexts commonly encourage negative leadership practices • Strengthening health leadership is a system-wide reform that requires intervention at individual, team and system levels • Future leadership research must acknowledge and engage with context in understanding how to strengthen health systems
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