This brief introduces the social determinants of health (SDOH) concept and terminology, and discusses approaches to addressing SDOH. Understanding these root causes of health inequities and their impact on health care access, quality, and equity is crucial to strengthening health systems.

This brief identifies systems considerations for CHW career progression, including health workforce education and training, regulation and policy, management, and financing.

This brief includes a global evidence review of DFS for health conducted by LHSS and an analysis of two programmatic case studies of DFS for health by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) through the Digital Square initiative.

This learning brief captures LHSS’s experience in supporting municipal-level partners through the contracting process and distills emerging lessons to inspire other municipalities to pursue public-private partnerships as a vehicle for expanding access to urban PHC services.

This brief presents what LHSS has learned through applying a systems thinking approach to its support for HSCs’ advocacy efforts in expanding PHC services in urban Bangladesh.

This learning brief can be used as a resource for HRH managers, planners, program managers, and frontline practitioners to learn how other countries are approaching and successfully designing and implementing solutions to their HRH challenges. It can also be used as a reference for health policy makers, funders, and implementing partners to inform the design and implementation of HRH resource optimization initiatives covered in this brief.

This brief presents the achievements of two NGOs that received grants to conduct risk communication and community engagement work under the LHSS Project in the Kyrgyz Republic. It examines the grants’ capacity strengthening impact on the two organizations, describes lessons learned, and provides recommendations for donors, implementing partners, and local government partners implementing similar programs.

This brief presents work completed under the LHSS Kyrgyz Republic Activity Intervention 4: Enhance Cold Chain System. LHSS worked with key government stakeholders, including the Republican Center of Immunoprophylaxis, to digitalize and update components of the country’s vaccine registry and complement these updates by adding additional functionalities for cold chain tracking and management.

Ukraine is facing extraordinary challenges to its health system amidst the Russian invasion, including attacks on Ukrainian medical facilities and infrastructure. To restore and maintain critical health services to Ukraine’s dispersed population, the Ministry of Health is strengthening its capacity to offer medical consultations via telemedicine. This two-page Progress Update describes LHSS technical assistance for the effort and results as of January 2023.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused many doctors to leave the country, compromised patients’ safety when seeking care, and displaced large portions of the population away from their primary health care providers. A strong national telemedicine system will be key to assuring access to health services for Ukrainians, now and in the future. Experiences from other conflict/disaster areas may provide insights, helping Ukraine assess and implement its own telemedicine response.

This brief highlights learnings from working with local government leaders of two city corporations and ten district-level municipalities from the Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions in Bangladesh.

This brief explores ways in which digital tools and systems can be used successfully and responsibly to advance SBC interventions in support of health system strengthening, and provides recommendations for future programming and areas of research.