CCIH Small Grant Equips Zimbabwe Health Network for Resilience
“The high-performance board, like the high-performance team, is competent, coordinated, collegial, and focused on an unambiguous goal. Such entities do not simply evolve; they must be constructed to an exacting blueprint.” -Organizational theorist David Nadler in the Harvard Business Review
Zimbabwe faces significant public health challenges, including inadequate healthcare infrastructure, workforce shortages, and lack of access to essential medicines and supplies; making it a challenging environment for health institutions to operate efficiently. The Zimbabwe Association of Church-related Hospitals (ZACH) leadership team was looking to equip the organization to meet these challenges and saw the CCIH Small Grant program as a unique opportunity to strengthen its leadership, governance, and management capacity.
Above photo shows ZACH staff, leadership, and board at the capacity building sessions supported by the CCIH Small Grant.
ZACH Structure and Capacity Assessment
ZACH is the medical arm of all churches in Zimbabwe and has 135 hospitals and clinics in its membership. The organization is accountable to the ZACH Management Board working in close collaboration with Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) who are the owners of mission health facilities and the organization serves as a link between ZHOCD, the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Childcare, and other health providers and agencies.
After conducting the CCIH Organization Capacity Assessment, ZACH staff identified gaps in key areas, including the organization’s leadership and governance structure, management capacity, internal communication, accountability, and financial appreciation and governance.
In the video below, the ZACH Executive Director Mrs. Vuyelwa T. Sidile-Chitimbire explains how the organization sought to address those gaps with training sessions conducted by an external Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and supported by a CCIH Small Grant.
The training was conducted over four days in November of 2023. The first part of the training was for the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denomination (ZACH Management Board, Board of Trustees, and the ZACH Senior Management Team. Areas of focus included: problem-solving, building trust, emotional intelligence, effective communication, accountability, motivating employees, delegating, time management, risk management and developing succession plans.
The second part of the training was directed at middle management, and focused on setting the tone for a respectful culture and communicating ZACH’s vision, mission and values. Skills and areas covered include: systemic thinking, resilience, conflict management, regulating personal emotions, building high-performing teams, self-awareness and development, programming, finance, accountability and commitment.
Board Diversity Builds Capacity
ZACH identified a lack of diverse skills and knowledge among board members as a weakness. Mrs. Chitimbire explains in the video below how the organization addressed that weakness and set itself up to manage risk and ensure compliance.
At the end of the Training ZACH came up with a ZACH Board Charter and the ZACH Combined Internal Governance Structure and the review of both the ZOHCD and ZACH Constitutions based on the recommendation from the meeting.
The Road Ahead
Thanks to the grant and the training, ZACH developed a board performance and evaluation tool and now has risk management tools and policies in place. They are working on plans to take the training into member health facilities to build the capacity of leadership and staff at those sites, ensuring they are equipped to meet the growing challenges of the health sector in Zimbabwe.