District health systems: challenges and opportunities

Health staff with management roles at district level can often find themselves burdened with expectations to meet targets set at national level, but without the autonomy or resources to mount strategies to achieve these targets. One way to address this is through devolution of power and resources to the district level, which we will look at in the next step.

But before considering this, how can planners and policy makers at national level consider the needs and capacity of district staff in their planning processes? Reflect on this as we consider decentralisation in the next few steps.