A scoping review of current trends of multisectoral collaborations for health within the education, agriculture, and environment sectors in Anglophone Africa

Ugenyi Victoria Iloabachie^1*Maureen Nwokorie²Casmir Mbaegbu²Kingsley Ude²Chinyere Ojiugo Mbachu²Obinna E. Onwujekwe²

• ¹University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria
• ²University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

Background: In Anglophone Africa, addressing the double disease burden of disease requires coordinated action across both the health and non-health sectors. Despite the existence of policies advocating this multisectoral collaborations, implementation remains limited and inconsistent across the continent. This scoping review explored multisectoral collaboration for health in the education, agriculture and environment sectors in Anglophone Africa in order to understand the existence and effectiveness of policies and activities within these sectors that contribute to the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Methods: A scoping review was conducted across peer-reviewed and grey literature published between 2004 and 2024. It was guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) framework and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist, Databases such as HINARI, Google Scholar, PubMed, and African Journals Online (AJOL) were searched systematically. Search terms were customized for each database. Studies were included if they described or analyzed national or subnational health-related policies, programmes, or initiatives involving any of these sectors in any Anglophone African country. The PAGER (pattern, advances, gaps, evidence and recommendations) framework was used to organize the results and streamline the presentation of data. Results: The review included 25 documents from Anglophone African countries. The findings show that while policies supporting multisectoral collaboration for health were identified, implementation remained inadequate. Key enablers of progress in multisectoral collaboration in mainstreaming health in the different sectors include strong political will, joint planning mechanisms, and donor coordination, while some barriers include poor inter-sectoral coordination, weak accountability frameworks, and limited data sharing. Conclusion: Though evidence exists of policies supporting multisectoral collaboration for health in the non-health sectors in anglophone Africa, translating policy intent into practice remains challenging. Strengthening governance, fostering institutional capacity, and promoting evidence-informed planning are critical in successful mainstreaming of health in this region.