Holding a Health System to Account: Voices from Mozambique (A Documentary)
Channel: Institute of Development Studies
Date: 16/05/2018

In this documentary we hear directly from health service users and providers in the Mozambican capital city of Maputo on accountability gaps and challenges. Filmed as part of the Vozes Desiguais/Unequal Voices Economic and Social Research Council–Department for International Development (ESRC–DFID)-funded research project on the politics of accountability within multi-level health systems in Brazil and Mozambique, these interviews capture the frustration and injustice of health inequities as they are experienced in day-to-day life. Common problems such as unacceptably long waiting times, frequent drug stock-outs, and illicit charges for public health service delivery are described by residents of Maputo. The film explores what strategies are possible to ensure that these issues are comprehensively dealt with by those with the power to remedy them. In a country such as Mozambique, with a post-independence history of national health system creation, and the promise made to achieve 'health for all', what would health management strategies and an enabling policy environment need to look like to have more meaningful accountability on health user rights and entitlements?