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.

LHSS conducted a study of 37 countries to provide a better understanding of the strengths, opportunities, and gaps in the structures governing the provision of quality health services.

This report details case studies from Rwanda and Zambia which offer unique insights into the operationalization of National Quality Policies and Strategy (NQPS) within broader governance and quality of care reforms.

Through energetic and broad stakeholder collaboration, the country’s long-stalled effort to pass a UHC policy has gained momentum.

The launch of the combined Health Accounts and National AIDS Spending Assessment exercise conducted by the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia aims to improve the collective understanding of both health and HIV spending in the country.

LHSS along with speakers from USAID and WHO reflected on strategies to ensure reliable funding for costing the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of a National Quality Policy and Strategy (NQPS).

La boîte à outils vise à combler une lacune dans les conseils pratiques pour l’EPS dans les programmes de lutte contre le paludisme. Il contient des orientations, des ressources et des exemples étape par étape pour développer des activités d’ESP, dans le but global d’équiper les acteurs au niveau des pays pour stimuler une plus grande participation du secteur privé à la lutte et à l’élimination du paludisme et contribuer à des résultats durables au niveau local. La boîte à outils est disponible en anglais et en frech.

The toolkit aims to address a gap in practical guidance for PSE in malaria programming. It contains step-by-step guidance, resources, and examples for developing PSE activities, with the overall goal of equipping country-level actors to stimulate greater private sector participation in malaria control and elimination and contribute to locally sustained results. The toolkit is available in English and French.

This brief builds on the USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) Strengthening Governance report (2022) and global National Quality Policy and Strategy (NQPS) survey, aiming to provide practical examples and considerations for country practitioners to consider on their quality journeys. It includes case studies of three countries that have used NQPS to mobilize and align resources for quality.

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 Catalog allows practitioners to consider which interventions have more robust evidence bases to support their practical application, such as: enhancing worker and supervisor competencies through training, offering nonfinancial incentives for high performers, practicing task sharing to promote cost savings, implementing digital solutions to expand access to services, and reducing costs of procuring and distributing pharmaceutical products.

This two-pager focuses on USAID’s Learning Question 5, “What are effective and sustainable mechanisms or processes that enable the participation of private sector, civil society, and public organizations in developing locally-led solutions to improve high-performing health care, especially for poor and vulnerable populations? What enables the effective participation or leadership of marginalized populations themselves in the development and implementation of these solutions? Under what conditions is this participation different?”

This PSCSE landscape report was compiled using evidence generated from a comprehensive documentary review and selected key informant interviews conducted to gain insight into the status of implementation of existing PPPs, and the challenges, lessons learned, and success stories.

The Namibian government has a long history of working with the private sector to deliver essential health services. However, the engagement between the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) and private sector actors within the health sector is mostly through ad hoc interactions during national campaigns, planning processes and service delivery. Thus, there is a need for more-coordinated and more-strategic engagement to effectively leverage the private sector's capacity and strategically position the private sector’s role in advancing universal health coverage (UHC).