The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) is not only a public health emergency causing loss of life and human suffering; it also poses a major threat to the global economy and extraordinarily impacts the social-economic lives of humanity. Health systems in both high and low-income countries have struggled to provide adequate COVID-19 testing and care with negative impacts on the continuity of services for non-COVID-19 health care. There are tremendous concerns about such impacts on the healthcare system and social policy in a number of African countries.

This paper reflects the practices and emerging issues of governance and social accountability during the COVID-19 pandemic within the Eastern and Southern Africa region borrowing from the experience of practitioners on accountability and social action in Health.