Late last year, health sector practitioners from eight countries met to tackle the issue head-on as participants in the Joint Learning Network Health Budget Execution Learning Exchange. They made meaningful progress.

By now, much has been written about the egregious global inequities in COVID-19 vaccine distribution. But less has been said about another inequity that holds serious implications for global health: the disparities in genomic sequencing capacities and capabilities worldwide.

She’s a big thinker, with an illustrious background. Midori de Habich was Peru’s minister of health and chair of the South American Council of Health from 2012-2014. She has served on various WHO working groups and missions and led USAID-funded projects in Peru. Now, she is applying her expertise in financial protection and population coverage to LHSS as the project’s technical director.

This Practice Spotlight brief describes outcome harvesting, a monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning approach that can help tease out the specific impacts of HSS interventions conducted in complex environments, where many factors may influence an outcome.

This Practice Spotlight brief describes contribution analysis, a monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning approach well-suited for examining the effects of HSS interventions conducted in complex environments, where the causes of change are multifaceted and difficult to trace.

This strategy document lays out how the LHSS Project will support country partners in moving towards greater gender sensitivity, responsiveness, and ultimately transformation in their health systems.

It is easy to fall back on the habit of using catchall terms like “vulnerable groups” to refer to many different people, but relying on these terms can have a harmful unintended consequence.  

Population movement of this magnitude places huge stress on health systems in receptor countries. How can health care for migrants be financed? How can health system capacity be expanded? And how can health sector policies and national migration policies be harmonized? 

The events of the past 18 months underscore the importance of generally strong, equitable, and accessible health systems. COVID-19 is not the only threat we face, and as we prepare for the future it is critical that we begin to sufficiently invest in the foundational health system strengthening required to develop lasting resilience. 

Mobile phones, mobile money, and other advances in digital financial technology create new opportunities to speed progress towards universal health coverage. 

Guided by USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy (2012), GESI guidance developed by USAID Missions, and the LHSS GESI Strategy, LHSS is committed to implementing five GESI standards to ensure that local health systems meet everyone’s needs for access to quality essential health services.