What is Covid-19 teaching us about community health systems? A reflection from a rapid community-led mutual aid response in Cape Town, South Africa
Loading...
Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kerman University of Medical Sciences
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exposed the wide gaps in South Africa’s formal social safety
net, with the country’s high levels of inequality, unemployment and poor public infrastructure combining to produce
devastating consequences for a vast majority in the country living through lockdown. In Cape Town, a movement of selforganising, neighbourhood-level community action networks (CANs) has contributed significantly to the communitybased response to COVID-19 and the ensuing epidemiological and social challenges it has wrought. This article
describes and explains the organising principles that inform this community response, with the view to reflect on the
possibilities and limits of such movements as they interface with the state and its top-down ways of working, often
producing contradictions and complexities. This presents an opportunity for recognising and understanding the power
of informal networks and collective action in community health systems in times of unprecedented crisis, and brings
into focus the importance of finding ways to engage with the state and its formal health system response that do not
jeopardise this potential.
Description
Keywords
Public health, Community health system, Covid-19, Mutual Aid, South Africa
Citation
van Ryneveld, M. et al. (2022). What is Covid-19 teaching us about community health systems? A reflection from a rapid community-led mutual aid response in Cape Town, South Africa. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 11(Special Issue), 5-8. 10.34172/IJHPM.2020.167