Collaborating to strengthen health systems across Africa.

At Spark Health Africa,
we believe sustainable health system transformation cannot be achieved in isolation. Lasting impact is created through strong partnerships built on shared vision, trust, collaboration, and collective action.
Our partnerships enable us to strengthen leadership, support public-sector innovation, and drive meaningful health system change across diverse African contexts.

Purpose-Driven Partnerships

Our most successful relationships have been with entities that share our core values and are committed to making a measurable impact despite the many challenges that arise when trying to drive transformative change.

Measurable Impact

We pursue purpose-driven partnerships with like-minded organizations that also seek to transform people and systems for the betterment of society.

Transformation

Through collaboration, we are able to combine leadership development, technical expertise, operational experience, and strategic support to create sustainable improvements within public-sector health systems.

Sustainable Improvements

Our Partnership Ecosystem
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We work with a diverse network of partners across government, civil society, funding institutions, and implementation organisations.
Government
Partners
Governments who invite us to implement leadership initiatives with them, strengthening public-sector leadership capacity, accountability, collaboration, and health system performance.
We work alongside Ministries of Health and district leadership teams to ensure that initiatives are aligned with national priorities and embedded within existing systems and structures.
Operational
Partners
Operational partners who bring complimentary expertise to our leadership initiatives or co-create an initiative with us that leverages our expertise in leadership development.
By combining complementary strengths, we are able to support more integrated, innovative, and sustainable approaches to health system strengthening across Africa.
Funding
Partners
Funding partners who provide financing and strategic support to ensure the success of our leadership initiatives.
These partnerships enable long-term investment in transformative leadership development, collective impact initiatives, and public-sector scaling approaches that strengthen health systems and improve service delivery outcomes.

Built on Mutual Respect &
Shared Purpose
———

Regardless of the category, all of our partnerships are based on mutual respect, reciprocity and thought-partnership.

We value partnerships that foster:

  • Shared learning

  • Co-creation and innovation

  • Long-term sustainability

  • Local ownership and accountability

  • Measurable system impact

Our collaborative approach allows us to navigate complexity together while remaining focused on meaningful and lasting change within health systems and communities.

Let’s Build Stronger Health Systems Together

We invite Ministries of Health, NGOs, and like-minded organisations to explore collaborative partnerships that strengthen healthcare systems and create lasting impact across Africa.
We also invite interested donors to contact us for more information, including our audited financials and funding priorities.
Together, we can strengthen leadership, scale innovation, and build more resilient health systems across Africa.
+27 (83) 728-1774
chipo@sparkhealthafrica.co.za

Our current and past strategic partnerships.

Johnson & Johnson Foundation
JNJ GCI is dedicated to supporting and championing the people on the frontlines who are at the heart of delivering care. 

Spark Health Africa enjoys a long-term relationship with JNJ built on our mutual belief that people are at the centre of system transformation and, therefore, human asset development is the key to unlocking latent potential in the healthcare system. In the past 11 years JNJ has provided financial support and strategic thought-partnership for multiple Spark Health Africa programs across different countries. Currently we are working with JNJ to engender Collective Impact principles and practice in Community Health Platforms Approach programs in South Africa and Kenya.

Village Reach
VillageReach transforms health care delivery to reach everyone, so that each person has the health care needed to thrive.

Spark Health Africa and VillageReach have forged a partnership based on a common desire to drive collective impact between multi-sectoral stakeholders collaborating to scale innovative solutions to health service delivery gaps. We believe that governments have a central role to play in scaling innovative solutions for widespread impact and seek to amplify the voice of governments as the custodian of the well-being of their citizens. To this end, in 2021 we began a collaboration on the Learning Network which had been formed by VillageReach and other strategic partners in 2020.

The Learning Network provides a forum for governments, funders, and implementing partners where each partner can recognize their role in the factors that hinder sustainable impact at scale through both dialogue and mutually beneficial partnership. Spark Health Africa and VillageReach are strategic operational partners maintaining and growing the Learning Network. VillageReach also provides financial support for this program.

University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business

One of our first partners was the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business which supported Spark Health Africa as a specialized unit during the early years of our organization. This relationship was motivated by a common goal to change the work culture within African Ministries by infusing leadership and management skills in the practices and behaviours of healthcare managers. After successfully completing multiple programs, Spark Health Africa grew into an independent entity and was incorporated in 2018. 

MAC AIDS

We have previously received multi-year funding from MAC AIDS to support our work in Kenya and South Africa and were also a CDC sub-grantee through a TB/HIV Care-led consortium in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. In both cases we were united by a shared goal to contribute towards elimination of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission (eMTCT) by transforming the mindset of service providers to achieve measurable improvements in HIV program service delivery. 

Our key strategic and operational partners are African Ministries of Health which invite us to work with them, and with their implementing partners. We are grateful for past and present collaborations, including:

Kenya: National AIDS and STI’s Control Programme (NASCOP)

Lesotho: National Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF)

Malawi: National Ministry of Health, HIV/AIDS Department. mothers2mothers, Dignitas International, Management Sciences for Health, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)
Nigeria: Health Strategy & Delivery Foundation (HSDF)

South Africa: Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal Provincial Departments of Health, TB/HIV Care

Uganda: National Ministry of Health

Zimbabwe: National Ministry of Health, Manicaland Provincial Medical Directorate, and Matabeleland North Provincial Medical Directorate