Fostering resilience through integrated health system strengthening

Book excerpt: Public health emergencies continually reinforce the need for an integrated approach to health systems strengthening, underpinned by a public health approach, helping to build health systems resilience. As part of a collaboration between the USAID Office of the Health Systems and the WHO Integrated Health Services Department, a strategic meeting was convened on 14 April 2021. This had wide-ranging representation which included WHO Deputy Director-General, Executive leadership from USAID, IANPHI and WFPHA. The overarching aim was to examine this topic together and identify actionable steps to build an integrated approach to health system strengthening that brings together health security, humanitarian, disease-specific and life-course-specific programmes. The specific objectives of the meeting were to: facilitate strategic discussions on prevailing practices in health systems resilience for health protection and high-quality health services, to determine actionable next steps for global guidance; inform policy options for WHO, USAID and partners to maximize joint country support for health systems resilience; and identify immediate priorities for next steps following the meeting. To inform and support the proceedings of this meeting, complementary desk reviews were conducted to synthesise evidence, and inform the discussions and way forward. Together, this package consists of (i) a technical meeting report and (ii) two complementary desk reviews. The package was co-developed with and has received concurrence from the USAID Office of the Health Systems.