Do health systems contribute to reduced fragility and state-building during and after crises?
Do health systems contribute to reduced fragility and state-building during and after crises?
The process of ‘state-building’ after periods of crisis has attracted significant recent attention in humanitarian and development sectors. Health systems are an important outcome of state-building, but are also argued by some to be a driver of the state-building process itself. Access to health services is valued across ideologies and offers a way of encouraging reconciliation and preventing future crises,1 a logic sometimes referred to as ‘health as a bridge to peace’.2 This brief discusses the associations between health systems and state-building and the empirical evidence in this area