Sustainability of health systems in crisis-affected settings: lessons for practice
Sustainability is a key concern in development, and an important consideration for health systems. Yet the concept has questionable relevance in crisis-affected settings, where the highest priority for health systems is short-term protection of healthcare provision and health. This policy brief reviews key dimensions of sustainability and their relevance for crisis-affected settings, then presents lessons for encouraging sustainability in these settings.
This brief is one of a series of ReBUILD papers addresses key questions on health systems strengthening in settings affected by conflict or crisis. The purpose of these briefing papers is to bring together current knowledge and research in order to inform decision-makers, implementers, researchers and other stakeholders in this area.
The questions addressed in the series were identified through a study of priority research needs carried out by the Thematic Working Group on Health Systems in Fragile and Conflict Affected States. ReBUILD researchers have drawn on both the programme’s own research and on wider published literature to address eight of the questions through this series of briefing papers.