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 brief highlights the recent shifts in health systems practice toward more explicitly incorporating an SBC lens in social accountability activities that aim to improve overall health system performance and address inequities. The brief synthesizes the growing body of evidence on the role social accountability plays in increasing accessibility to better-quality health care services and uses case studies and lessons learned to highlight how SBC approaches can be more explicitly integrated into this aspect of HSS programming.

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 two-pager focuses on USAID’s Learning Question 1, “What are the contributions of systems thinking approaches and tools to changes in health system outcomes? How do systems thinking approaches affect health system outcomes?”

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 primer is designed to help supply chain practitioners in governments, the private sector, donor agencies, and implementing partners understand the value of political economy analysis (PEA) and how it can help improve outcomes when implementing supply chain interventions and reforms. 

The Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) helps countries achieve sustainable, self-financed health systems that offer quality health care for all. This fact sheet summarizes our approach and technical areas of expertise.

This learning resource presents key learning from the activity literature review, learning exchange meetings, and TA workshops. This resource focuses particularly on stakeholder engagement and institutionalizing stronger links between national health priorities, sector plans and national budgets, which learning partners identified as their most pressing issues.

El Programa Comunidades Saludables de USAID (LHSS) ayuda a los países a conseguir sistemas sanitarios sostenibles y autofinanciados que ofrezcan una atención sanitaria de calidad para todos.

This document outlines LHSS’s strategy for supporting the strengthening and scale up of local capacity through country and core activities. Designed for use by LHSS staff and local partners, this strategy provides a framework and details on how to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate sustainable health system strengthening activities. This strategy replaces the LHSS Scale Up of Local Capacity Strategy (2019).

This two-pager focuses on USAID’s Learning Question 3, “What measurement tools, approaches, and data sources, from HSS or other fields, are most helpful in understanding interrelationships and interactions, and estimating impact of HSS interventions on health system outcomes and priority health outcomes?”

This two-pager focuses on USAID’s Learning Question 2, “What conditions or factors successfully facilitate the institutionalization and/or implementation at scale of good practices that improve health system outcomes, and why? What are lessons learned regarding planning for sustainability and achieving results at scale?”

Given the complexity of the causes and effects of the SDoH and the multitude of stakeholders and interventions needed, this publication introduces the Theory of Change (ToC) that can help those seeking to develop interventions to address and mitigate the effect of the SDoH on health.