Harnessing Residual Capacity: Ghana’s Struggle against Health System Constraints in the COVID-19 Response

Drawing on policy statements, newspaper articles, and other secondary sources, this chapter introduces the concept of residual capacity to explain how Ghana was able to surmount the limitations of its weak and under-resourced public health system by leveraging previous public health interventions and proactive responses from the continental and sub(regional) organizations in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ability to quickly mobilize pre-existing capacity in the form of previous epidemic control measures, networks of volunteers, and fortuitously timed logistical acquisitions was crucial in Ghana’s early pandemic response strategy. However, residual capacity, while effective for short-term measures, proved increasingly inadequate as the pandemic grew protracted. The chapter concludes with brief reflections on the limits of residual capacity in public service delivery.