The WHO Health Systems Governance and Finance Webinar Series presents a webinar titled, ‘Health systems strengthening: Lessons from small island developing states’ on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 8 PM CET (July 6 2023, 6 AM Fiji Time).
Health System strengthening, especially in the context of achieving Universal Health Coverage by 2030 (SDG3), is high on the agenda of the global health community. There has been however limited attention to the fact that the effectiveness or even the feasibility of many health system strengthening interventions may depend on the size of the health system to be strengthened. The delivery of some interventions may entail heavy fixed costs or require costly complementary inputs. This may impose greater burden on small countries than on their bigger counterparts and deprive the former from the returns to scale inherent to these interventions.
In this webinar, building on a forthcoming paper, experts active in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will present the mix of health and non-health conditions encountered by these countries in the development of their health systems. The six building blocks framework will be used to review some of the specific challenges. Possible ways forward will be presented. Three panelists will share approaches adopted in their respective regions. Speakers will also argue that committing more attention and resources internationally to SIDS would generate not just tangible gains in health for these countries but also huge learning benefits for the global health community at a low cost.
