From Fragile to Resilient Health Systems: A Journey to Self-Reliance
USAID's Office of Health Systems
Since 2000, there has been tremendous progress towards achieving global health goals. Improved health outcomes aren’t sustainable if the health system itself is fragile. In many countries health systems remain weak and unprepared to deal with stressors from population changes, increased incidence of conflict or other shocks such as natural disasters or disease outbreaks. More than 2.5 billion people in 51 countries live in areas of high risk for an event, such as natural or humanitarian disasters, that could overwhelm a country’s national response capacity costing an estimated $520 billion USD per year. Development assistance for health is no longer an expanding resource for country health budgets. Projected shortfalls in health spending, and an increase in number of unexpected shocks, particularly in countries with the most complex disease burden, threaten the achievement of health targets.
Unfortunately, the deterioration of a health system adversely affects the health of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups such as women and children and can cause previous health gains to backslide. A resilient health system can reduce vulnerability, prevent deterioration of health and mitigate against increased poverty. Absent of a shock to test this definition, how do we know if health systems are able to prepare for, respond and adapt to meet challenges? During stable times, what health system policies and processes need to be in place to ensure uninterrupted, quality services? What can be done at the systems level to enhance individual and community capacity to deal with disasters? How can a health system better coordinate with non-health sectors to be better prepared for potential i future shocks? And, what is needed to shift a health system from being fragile to resilient?
USAID’s Office of Health Systems is hosting a consultative meeting on March 27, 2019 to discuss these questions and propose solutions to make health systems more resilient. The meeting will bring together health system and resilience leaders, policy makers and development experts to share experiences, innovative practices, successes and challenges for shifting health systems from fragile to resilient.
Objectives
- Analyze innovations and approaches to shift a health system from fragile to resilient
- Illustrate needs, successes and challenges of applying multisectoral and multi-level approaches to increase health systems resilience
- Understand application of major innovative frameworks, tools and methods for measuring health systems resilience