Health systems strengthening (also health system strengthening, abbreviated HSS) is a term used in
global health
Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems th ...
that roughly means to improve the health care system of a country. Within this general definition, it can mean increasing funding for health infrastructure, improving health policy, trying to achieve
universal healthcare
Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured right to health, access to health care. It is genera ...
,
or any number of other health measures.
There has been some effort to use a
systems thinking
Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts.Anderson, Virginia, & Johnson, Lauren (1997). ''Systems Thinking Ba ...
approach to health systems strengthening.
Usage
Various health organizations have claimed to use health systems strengthening (while not necessarily agreeing on the definition). Some of these are:
*
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
*
US Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance.
Established in 19 ...
(USAID, uses different definition from the one in a 2006 Global Fund-commissioned WHO report);
[ USAID states that HSS has been "at the core of tsmission in health for the last 20 years", and defines HSS as "initiating activities in the six internationally accepted core HSS functions – human resources for health; health finance; health governance; health information; medical products, vaccines, and technologies; and service delivery".]GAVI Alliance
GAVI, officially Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (previously the GAVI Alliance, and before that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) is a public–private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization ...
[
* The ]Global Fund
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (or simply the Global Fund) is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to "attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tu ...
[
* ]PEPFAR
The United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the global health funding by the United States to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease. As of 2023, PEPFAR has ...
(though less developed)[
* ]Stop TB Partnership
The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2001 to eliminate tuberculosis as a public health problem. Its 2000 partner organizations include international, nongovernmental and governmental organizations and patient groups. The secretariat is base ...
(uses different definition from the one in a 2006 Global Fund-commissioned WHO report)[
* Roll Back Malaria (uses different definition from the one in a 2006 Global Fund-commissioned WHO report)][
]
Reception
Both the idea of health systems strengthening and the term itself have received attention. Even advocates of health systems strengthening admit that it can often seem like a "distant, even abstract aim".[
Marchal et al., writing in 2009, called the term "vague" and argued that "most current HSS strategies are selective (i.e., they target a specific disease), and their effects may undermine progress towards the long-term goal of effective, high-quality, and inclusive health systems."]World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
, has pointed out that "Almost any support to health interventions can be considered HSS".
See also
* Timeline of global health
References
{{reflist
Global health