A SWOT analysis of contemporary gaps and a possible diagnostic tool for environmental health in an upper-middle income country: a case study of South Africa

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the state of environmental health in the Republic of South Africa using the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis framework. The internal and external factor evaluations were conducted by reviewing existing literature searched using a combination of keywords and boolean functions. The weighted score for the strengths and weaknesses was 0.79 and 1.04, respectively. The external factor evaluations findings revealed that environmental health has an equal amount of threats and opportunities, however, the threats outweigh the opportunities. The total weighted score for the internal and external factor evaluations was 1.83 and 2.25, respectively, which were below the average value of 2.5. The internal-external factors matrix indicated that environmental health in the Republic of South Africa needs to be refocused and re-aligned to public health protection. Failure to address the weaknesses and threats and optimise the strengths and opportunities may further weaken the provision of environmental health services.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental stressor
• exposure
• public health

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Yonda “YoYo” Nokhwethu, Boipelo “BloBlo” Bhuda, Nkosinathi Moses Lukhele, Mosima Success “Graduate” Letsoalo, Siyanda Nkosi, Nomsa Duduzile Lina Thabethe, Oscar Rikhotso, Justice Malegodi Thobejane and Dr Phoka Caiphus Rathebe for their valuable insights. We also appreciate the help China Seremi Mooa for his valuable assistance with data presentation and visualisation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary materials

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.