Persistent weaknesses in Zimbabwe’s public health procurement systems are increasingly being linked to medicine stock-outs, inflated costs and compromised maternal health services, prompting renewed efforts to place citizens at the centre of procurement oversight.
In Mabvuku, Transparency International Zimbabwe brought together community monitors, civil society groups and health centre committee members to strengthen public scrutiny of procurement and supply chain processes in maternal healthcare, amid growing concern that corruption in the sector carries direct human costs. TIZ said the initiative was aimed at “strengthening citizen capacity to monitor public procurement and supply chain processes in maternal healthcare.”
Health procurement has long been identified as a high-risk area, where opaque purchasing, poor contract management and weak accountability mechanisms undermine service delivery. In maternal health, these failures can translate into missing essential drugs, delayed supplies and overstretched facilities, increasing risks for pregnant women and newborns. TIZ warned that “corruption in health procurement is not just ‘bad governance’, it leads to stock-outs, inflated costs, theft of medicines, and compromised maternal health services.”
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The focus of the engagement was on equipping community-level actors to interrogate the procurement cycle, identify who is responsible at each stage and detect warning signs such as conflicts of interest, inflated pricing and limited competition.
According to TIZ, the training emphasised “understanding the procurement cycle and who is responsible” as well as “identifying red flags like conflict of interest, overpricing, and lack of competition.”
Particular attention was paid to procurement flows involving the Ministry of Health and Child Care and NatPharm, institutions central to the sourcing and distribution of medicines and medical supplies. TIZ said the programme also focused on “tracking how procurement works in the public health sector (MoHCC/NatPharm).”
Advocates argue that formal oversight bodies alone have not been sufficient to curb malpractice, allowing procurement failures to persist despite repeated policy commitments to transparency. TIZ said the training was intended to support “building stronger evidence-based advocacy for accountability.”
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