Social Innovation in the South Africa Health Ecosystem Review 2025
The global landscape for health financing is shifting. For many low-income countries, where donors finance up to 60% of health budgets, this poses a serious threat to medicines, workforce capacity, and essential services.
We need health systems that are more resilient, adaptive, and self-reliant — and innovation is a critical part of that. When scaled, innovations strengthen service delivery, supply chains, financing models, and access to care. But this only works when the broader ecosystem is functioning.
The Social Innovation in the South African Health Ecosystem Review clarifies what social innovation means in our context, identifies key actors and barriers, and outlines practical actions to strengthen the system for the future.
A mixed approach was used that combined desktop research with interviews across a wide range of stakeholders. By triangulating literature, policy documents and stakeholder perspectives, the authors produced a high-level, system-wide view of strengths, gaps and opportunities, which informs sixteen recommendations across six topics..
This review was co-produced by RIIS, the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Innovate UK, with contributions from a multidisciplinary team of researchers and 38 sector stakeholders.