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

How good is this research?
Assessing the quality of research can be a tricky business. This blog from our editor offers some tools and tips.
Read now

Related content

Document
Rapid evidence review: Policy interventions to mitigate negative effects on poverty, agriculture and food security from disease outbreaks and other crises
S. Wiggins, R. Calow, J. Feyertag, S. Levine, A. Löwe / APRA, 2020
This review was commissioned by DFID to draw lessons from previous shocks (e.g. Ebola outbreak, MERS, SARS, the food price crisis of 2008/09) that may be relevant to dealing with the consequences of COVID-19 in developing countries and especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Document
Covid-19: Key considerations for a public health response
M. Leach / Institute of Development Studies UK, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic is more than a health crisis. Its long-term economic and societal effects may well outweigh its initial public health impact. It is therefore essential that responses are socially sensitive and attuned to mitigating these secondary effects. This briefing draws upon lessons learned by development actors during previous epidemics.
Document
Key considerations: online information, mis- and disinformation in the context of COVID-19
Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform, 2020
This brief sets out practical considerations relating to flows of information, misinformation and disinformation though online media, particularly social media networks, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It details various types of online media, key players and influencers on social media, and strategies for ensuring good information and disrupting mis- and disinformation.
Document
Measuring health system resilience in a highly fragile nation during protracted conflict: South Sudan 2011–15
Jackline Odhiambo / 2019
Health systems resilience (HSR) is defined as the ability of a health system to continue providing normal services in response to a crisis,
Document
Understanding fragility: implications for global health research and practice
Karin Diaconu / 2019
Advances in population health outcomes risk being slowed—and potentially reversed—by a range of threats increasingly presented as ‘fragility

Eldis

Do health systems contribute to reduced fragility and state-building during and after crises?