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Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond - A BRIEF ON THE WHO ...
A BRIEF ON THE WHO POSITION

             Building health systems
              resilience for universal
                 health coverage and
                       health security
                 during the COVID-19
                        pandemic and
                               beyond
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond - A BRIEF ON THE WHO ...
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond - A BRIEF ON THE WHO ...
A BRIEF ON THE WHO POSITION

Building health systems
resilience for universal
health coverage and
health security
during the COVID-19
pandemic and
beyond
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond - A BRIEF ON THE WHO ...
WHO/UHL/PHC-SP/2021.02

© World Health Organization 2021

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Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond - A BRIEF ON THE WHO ...
iii

Acknowledgements
                 This position paper        Reviewers and contributors from
                 was developed through      WHO headquarters and regional
                 collaboration between      offices: Pascale Abie, Hala Abou Taleb,
                 headquarters and all       Benedetta Allegranzi, Sophie Amet,
                 regional offices of WHO,   Roberta Andraghetti, Ali Ardalan,
under the leadership of Zsuzsanna Jakab     Ian Askew, Anshu Banerjee, Anil
(Deputy Director-General, WHO) and          Bhola, James Campbell, Alessandro
Mike Ryan (Executive Director, WHO          Cassini, Jorge Castilla, Ogochukwu
Health Emergencies Programme) with          Chukwujekwu, Giorgio Cometto, Peter
further guidance from Jaouad Mahjour        Cowley, Sofia Dambri, Neelam Dhingra-
(Assistant Director-General, Emergency      Kumar, Khassoum Diallo, Abdul Ghaffar,
Preparedness, WHO).                         Ann-Lise Guisset, Lynne Harrop, Qudsia
                                            Huda, Humphrey Karamagi, Masaya
The responsible technical and               Kato, Rania Kawar, Edward Kelley, Devora
coordination team comprised Sohel           Kestel, Hala Khudari, Joseph Kutzin, Yue
Saikat, Marc Ho, Dheepa Rajan and           Liu, Mwelecele Malecela, Paul Marsden,
Andre Griekspoor and was led by Suraya      Robert Marten, Nikon Meru, Hernan
Dalil, Stella Chungong and Gerard           Montenegro Von Mühlenbrock, Saqif
Schmets.                                    Mustafa, Matthew Neilson, Hyppolite
                                            Ntembwa, Denis Porignon, Adrienne
At the regional level, leadership and
                                            Rashford, Tomas Roubal, Cris Scotter,
coordinated contributions were provided
                                            Redda Seifeldin, Kabir Sheikh, Zubin
by directors and leads responsible for
                                            Shroff, Ian Smith, Rajesh Sreedharan,
programme management, universal
                                            Shamsuzzoha Syed, Regina Titi-Ofei,
health coverage and life course, and
                                            Anthony Twyman, Jun Xing, Kenza
health emergencies: Natasha Azzopardi-
                                            Zerrou, Yu Zhang, Zandile Zibwowa.
Muscat, Jarbas Barbosa da Silva (Junior),
Joseph Cabore, James Fitzgerald, Rana
Hajjeh, Melitta Jakab, Awad Mataria,
Pem Namgyal, Dorit Nitzan, Martin Taylor,
Prosper Tumusiime, Jos Vandelaer, Liu
Yunguo, Felicitas Zawaira.
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond - A BRIEF ON THE WHO ...
© WHO / Lorenzo Pezzoli
                                       Cover Photo: © WHO / Blink Media - Martyn Aim
iv

     Key Messages For Heads of
     Government, Ministries of
     Finance and Leaders Outside the
     Health Sector
v

•   The health of populations is key          •   These reforms must integrate health
    to economic development – a fact              emergency preparedness and
    recognized since the seminal World            response systems into universal
                                                  health coverage efforts, based on
    Bank report of 1993, Investing in
                                                  primary health care and essential
    health (1).
                                                  public health function approaches,
•   The catastrophic human, social                with a reorientation of investment
    and economic toll of COVID-19 has             and resources.
    demonstrated that protecting health
                                              •   National health security and
    is also critical for economic security;
                                                  economic stability are also
    just as economic development and
                                                  dependent on the protection of
    health development are inextricably
                                                  populations living in contexts of
    linked, so too economic resilience
                                                  fragility, conflict and violence.
    depends on resilient health systems.
                                                  Governments must therefore ensure
•   Governments have invested heavily             dignified, equitable health services
    in the COVID-19 response, and                 for marginalized and vulnerable
    now face the challenge of fiscal              populations during and beyond
    pressures, managing heavy debt                emergencies.
    burdens with pressure to increase
                                              •   Such reforms, which build
    taxation and reduce spending, while
                                                  all-hazards health emergency
    sustaining social protection.
                                                  preparedness and resilient health
•   Governments must avoid falling                systems, generate a substantial
    into the cycle of “panic then                 return on investment in terms of
    forget”, frequently observed in past          healthier populations, economic
    pandemics. Increased investment               resilience and equitable social
    in emergency preparedness and                 development.
    response has all too often been
    followed by rapid disinvestment
    and neglect, which weaken health
    systems and undermine economic
    resilience.

•   Many countries will require
    substantial health system reforms,
    addressing foundational gaps in
    public health capacities, including
    the International Health Regulations
    (IHR) (2005), to make them more
    efficient, effective and resilient,
    ensure economic resilience and
    socioeconomic development, and
    build trust.
vi

                               © WHO / Oleksii Ushakov
     Key Messages for Health
     Leaders, Partners and
     Communities
vii

•   The COVID-19 pandemic and its                                •    increase and sustain adequate
    catastrophic human, social and                                    investment for health (including
    economic toll have demonstrated                                   the health system foundations
    that making the health system                                     and emergency preparedness
    resilient to achieve universal health                             and risk management) and
    coverage and health security must                                 position health as central to
    be a priority for every WHO Member                                socioeconomic recovery and
    State. Universal health coverage and                              development;
    health security are two sides of the
    same coin and interdependent.                                •    build a strong primary health
                                                                      care foundation as the most
•   Making a national health system                                   cost-efficient and equitable
    resilient requires: a high-performing                             way to achieve universal health
    health system oriented to primary                                 coverage and health security;
    health care; the ability to sustain
    essential health services for all, even                      •    invest in essential public
    during an emergency response; and                                 health functions for holistic
    investment in the essential public                                and sustainable public health
    health functions, with emergency                                  capacities at all levels of health
    risk management for sustainable                                   systems, including capacities
    IHR (2005) capacities.                                            required for all-hazards
                                                                      emergency risk management;
•   Adequate investment in health
    emergency preparedness ensures                               •    integrate health security,
    that countries have the capacities                                emergency preparedness and
    to prevent, detect and respond                                    risk management requirementsi
    to future health threats and                                      in health system strengthening
    emergencies.                                                      efforts, and vice versa;

•   Making health systems resilient                              •    invest in whole-of-society
    and ready to address future threats                               governance with meaningful
    requires substantial heath system                                 engagement of communities,
    reform in countries; this should be                               and civil societies, the private
    backed up by a reorientation of                                   sector and all line ministries;
    investments and resources.
                                                                 •    pay special attention to those
•   In view of the considerable damage                                who are disproportionally
    that public health threats can                                    affected by health emergencies,
    inflict on national economies and                                 for example, people in countries
    population well-being, every WHO                                  with contexts of fragility,
    Member State Government should                                    conflict and violence, as well
    consider action to:                                               as vulnerable and marginalized
                                                                      groups in all countries, including
                                                                      migrants and refugees.

i Including IHR 2005; the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the
  SDGs
© WHO
1

Introduction                                   for both robust health systems and
                                               health emergency preparedness. Health
                                               security cannot depend only on discrete
                   The widespread health       preparedness and response functions;
                   and socioeconomic           it also relies on a high-performing health
                   impact of the pandemic      system, which can be drawn upon for
                   of coronavirus disease      surge capacities without compromising
                   (COVID-19) on all aspects   necessary services. Resilience relies
of society is by now well-documented           on a system which constantly strives
(2, 3). Besides overall setbacks in            to reach health system goals – service
progress made in achieving Sustainable         access, quality, effectiveness and
Development Goal (SDG) 3 (Ensure               financial protection, among others (5) –
healthy lives and promote well-being for       even during times of crisis and sudden
all at all ages), the protracted disruption    increases in health needs. At the same
of essential health services is threatening    time, resilience also implies that action
future health outcomes in many places          to achieve these health system goals is
(4). This comes on top of the struggle of      more strongly underpinned by emergency
many countries to meet the increased           preparedness and all-hazards risk
demands imposed by the pandemic                management perspectives.
and conduct essential associated
public health functions such as contact-       Health systems resilience is “the ability
tracing, quarantine and isolation.             of a system, community or society
Some countries have faced concurrent           exposed to hazards to resist, absorb,
health emergencies. Furthermore, new           accommodate, adapt to, transform and
barriers to health care demand, such           recover from the effects of a hazard in
as restrictions on movement, reduced           a timely and efficient manner, including
ability to pay and fear of infection, still    through the preservation and restoration
pose major challenges for health service       of its essential basic structures and
utilization more than one year on from the     functions through risk management” (6).
start of the pandemic. This is the case        Health system resilience thus requires
despite the many innovative approaches         the capacity to prevent, detect, respond
which countries have adopted to reduce         to and recover from public health threats
disruption. One of the world’s biggest         and emergencies and the agility to deploy
challenges in this crisis of unprecedented     resources to meet the greatest needs and
proportions, as has been seen in               maintain essential health services through
other health emergencies, remains its          crisis periods.
hugely inequitable impact on vulnerable
populations and communities, both within
and between countries.
                                               Objectives

The pre-existing inequalities causing          Since universal health coverage and
COVID-19’s disproportionate effect             health security are complementary
on both fragile countries and fragile          goals, this position paper provides a
populations brings to the fore the need        rationale and recommendations for
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security
2       during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

    building resilience and seeking integration
    between promoting universal health
                                                            Universal health
    coverage and ensuring health security by
    the following means:
                                                            coverage and health
    •   recovery and transformation of
                                                            security: two sides of
        national health systems through                     the same coin
        investment in the essential public
        health functions and the foundations                                  Universal health coverage
        of the health system, with a focus                                    and health security are
        on primary health care and the                                        interdependent and
        incorporation of health security                                      complementary health
        requirements;                                                         goals, and a strong
                                                            and resilient health system provides the
    •   all-hazards emergency risk
                                                            foundation for both. Health systems
        management, to ensure and
                                                            built on a multisectoral, whole-of-
        accelerate sustainable implementation
                                                            society approach are key to effective
        of the International Health Regulations
                                                            management of all types of hazards. They
        (IHR) (2005) and health emergency
                                                            enable existing capacities to address
        preparedness;
                                                            increased health needs and underlying
    •   a whole-of-government approach to                   risks, ensure sustained delivery of high-
        ensure community engagement and                     quality, safe essential health services even
        whole-of-society involvement.                       during disasters and emergencies, and
                                                            build back better through the recovery
    This brief calls for a renewed and                      period, making use of the lessons
    heightened national and global                          learned. This requires proactive, system-
    commitment to make health systems                       wide integration of universal health
    resilient against all forms of public health            coverage and health security efforts
    threats for sustained progress towards                  at all levels of governance (national,
    universal health coverage, health security              subnational and community).
    (including implementation of IHR (2005))
    and the SDGs.                                           The COVID-19 experience has shown
                                                            that critical health systems gaps and
                                                            vulnerabilities exist in countries from
                                                            all income groups. Reacting to health
                                                            emergencies as they occur, instead of
                                                            ensuring long-term health emergency
                                                            preparedness-building for health systems
                                                            resilience, has meant that countries
                                                            were unprepared for an emergency
                                                            of the speed, scale and severity of
                                                            the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also
                                                            shown that emergency preparedness
                                                            and response cannot be disentangled
3

                        from other aspects of public health
                        – leadership, community engagement,
                                                                       Primary health care
                        coordination mechanisms, action to
                        address inequalities, health care and
                                                                       and the essential
                        health promotion. It has also shown up         public health
                        market failures with regards to production
                        and allocation of essential supplies           functions as a
                        and vaccines. Vertical investment and
                        programming within the health sector and       foundation for
                        across sectors have proven ineffective
                        in enabling long-term health systems
                                                                       universal health
                        development and resilience. Health
                        systems capacity for effective response
                                                                       coverage and health
                        has also been hampered by ad-hoc               security
                        and fragmented global cooperation and
                        coordination in the context of surveillance,                     A primary health care
                        flexible and deployable human resources                          orientation in health
                        and equitable access to infection                                systems, and the
                        prevention and control supplies and safe                         systematic integration
                        and effective medical products.                                  of emergency risk
                                                                       management within them, can provide the
                        The world has a window of opportunity to
                                                                       essential foundations for both universal
                        learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and
                                                                       health coverage and health security. The
                        build back better to create integrated
                                                                       three key primary health care components
                        approaches for universal health coverage
                                                                       of the Vision for primary health care in
                        and health security at an accelerated
                                                                       the 21st century – integrated health
                        pace.
                                                                       services including essential public health
                                                                       functions; multisectoral policy and action;
                                                                       and empowered people and communities
© WHO / Tom Pietrasik

                                                                       (7) – are key levers where action is
                                                                       needed to achieve both goals. For
                                                                       example, integrated health services offer
                                                                       a continuum of care across different sites
                                                                       and levels and according to population
                                                                       need (8). This also requires more
                                                                       explicit integration of risk management
                                                                       approaches, including anticipating surge
                                                                       capacity for acute emergency services, in
                                                                       addition to well laid preparedness plans
                                                                       to ensure continuity of essential services
                                                                       with adequate safety for staff and patients
                                                                       in times of crisis (9). A multisectoral
                                                                       approach is necessary to address public
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security
4       during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

    health hazards beyond infectious disease                      been fragmented (14), resulting in historic
    outbreaks effectively, such as industrial                     and ongoing underinvestment in primary
    pollution, unsafe food or radiological                        health care and the essential public health
    events; it is also the only way to address                    functions. The COVID-19 experience
    the social determinants of health more                        has starkly revealed the vulnerabilities
    broadly as an integral component of                           brought about by that underinvestment,
    health systems strengthening in a way                         regardless of the income group of the
    that also reduces risks for emergencies.                      country concerned. Even countries
    Empowering communities implies health                         considered to have strong IHR (2005)
    governance with a whole-of-society                            capacities and/or strong health systems
    mindset, where people’s voices, including                     could not always fall back on sufficiently
    those of vulnerable and marginalized                          robust public health and/or primary
    populations, are systematically amplified                     health care capacity (15) with effective
    through institutionalized participation                       governance. The need to prioritize
    mechanisms which can be used in the                           primary health care and essential public
    service of both emergency response and                        health functions has thus never been
    day-to-day health sector operations (10).                     more acute.

    The essential public health functionsii
    include surveillance, governance                              Cost should not be a
    arrangements, financing, health
    promotion and risk reduction, health                          barrier
    legislation, public health research and
    human resources (11). These functions                                          The cost of ensuring
    are necessary to underpin strong                                               universal health coverage
    primary health care; action in these                                           and health security is
    areas ensures that both health systems                                         extremely low compared
    strengthening and all-hazards emergency                                        with the cost of a crisis
    risk management also serve as means of                        such as the current pandemic or future
    achieving universal health coverage and                       threats, including climate change (1, 16,
    health security (12, 13).                                     17, 18, 19). Further estimates concur
                                                                  that improving emergency preparedness
    Despite this inherent interdependence                         is very affordable, with estimates ranging
    and overlap in the actions needed to                          from US$ 1 to US$ 5 per person per
    achieve resilience, the approach to date                      year (20) – which will pay for itself several
    at both global and national levels has

    ii The essential public health functions are a list of minimum requirements for Member States to ensure public health.
       These focus on health promotion, prevention, determinants and security. They include aspects such as surveillance
       and monitoring, public health workforce, governance, regulation and public health legislation, public health systems
       planning and management, public health research, social mobilization and participation, preparation and response to
       health hazards and emergencies and promotion of health and health equity. The essential public health functions have
       recently been referred to, from an economic perspective, as “common goods for health”. See: Common goods for
       health. In: World Health Organization [website]. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020 (https://www.who.int/health-
       topics/common-goods-for-health#tab=tab_3, accessed 24 June 2021).
5

times over because of the significantly                      1. Leverage the current response
lower costs incurred when emergencies                           to strengthen preparedness
do happen. Moreover, a 1% additional                            against future threats and health
allocation of gross domestic product                            systems towards resilience.
to primary health care will enable most                         This involves using the results of
countries to bridge current coverage gaps                       multisectoral reviews and intra-action
(21). This means that financial cost should                     and after-action reviews to inform
not be a barrier that prevents countries                        sustained investment in emergency
from investing in building resilience;                          preparedness, the IHR (2005)
in the end, the dividends gained by                             capacities and their functionality,
addressing universal health coverage and                        determining priority needs, and
health security simultaneously leave us                         embedding policies and national plans
collectively better off, making it a wise                       of action for health security in health
investment from both a financial and a                          system strengthening. It ensures
health and well-being point of view.                            population access to quality health
                                                                services while maintaining capacities
                                                                for emergency preparedness. It
Policy                                                          includes harnessing investment for
                                                                medium- to long-term recovery,
recommendations                                                 preparedness and resilience against
                                                                all types of hazards. Implementation
                 WHO calls on countries                         of IHR (2005) must remain a
                 to take action for recovery                    requirement for health systems
                 and transformation of their                    resilience.
                 national and subnational
                 health systems and                          2. Invest in essential public health
proposes the following interconnected                           functions at all levels of health
policy recommendations and actions                              systems, including those needed
to inform planning, investment                                  for all-hazards emergency risk
and interventions by all relevant                               management. Critical and chronic
stakeholdersiii. When implementing these                        gaps in essential public health
recommendations, countries should                               functions should be the target of
apply an integrated approach, taking                            intensified investment.
into consideration the heterogeneity
within and between countries, and the                        3. Build a strong primary health care
complementarity between the various                             foundation by ensuring political
concepts covered.                                               commitment and leadership to place
                                                                primary health care at the heart
                                                                of efforts to attain universal health
                                                                coverage, health security and the
                                                                SDGs.

iii A more detailed version of the recommendations and actions is contained in the WHO position paper Building health
    system resilience towards universal health coverage and health security during COVID-19 and beyond.
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security
6       during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

    4. Invest in institutionalized                                           disaggregated data, to inform
       mechanisms for whole-of-                                              policies, planning and investment
       society engagement. Long-term                                         globally, with a focus on marginalized
       commitment will be required to                                        and vulnerable populations within
       bring about a real shift in the modus                                 and beyond countries with fragile,
       operandi of emergency preparedness,                                   conflict-affected and vulnerable (FCV)
       emergency risk management and                                         settings.
       maintenance of essential health
       services, which are essential for
       functional health systems and public                             Enabling
       health operations with more inclusive
       participation.                                                   implementation with
    5. Create and promote enabling                                      shared responsibility
       environments for research,
       innovation and learning by finding                                               The above
       ways to maintain and adapt the                                                   recommendations
       innovative models implemented                                                    highlight the need
       during the pandemic, thereby                                                     for coordinated,
       increasing the ability to handle the                                             multisectoral, whole-of-
       demands of future threats and                                    society action with clear government
       emergencies.                                                     ownership.

    6. Increase domestic and global                                     WHO will collaborate with its Member
       investment in health systems                                     States, the United Nations and other
       foundations and all-hazards                                      partners to ensure synergies with
       emergency risk management:                                       existing and upcoming national and
       this includes prioritizing investment                            global effortsiv. At national level, WHO
       and financing for public health and                              and its partners will similarly support
       health security, with consideration for                          bolstering whole-of-society, government-
       countries with protracted instability                            led socioeconomic recovery and
       and fragile systems.                                             transformation processes. This will
                                                                        include support for bringing together
    7. Address pre-existing inequities                                  various line ministries, development
       and the disproportionate impact                                  partners, civil society, the private sector
       of COVID-19 on marginalized                                      and communities to promote the health
       and vulnerable populations by,                                   agenda and mobilize resources for a
       for example, monitoring inequities                               primary health care oriented path towards
       in health and access to care, using                              universal health coverage and health

    iv Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator; United Nations framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID19;
      SDGs; IHR (2005); the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction; Paris Agreement on climate change, Universal Health
      Preparedness Review.
7

               security. WHO will advocate for and           in health systems recovery and building
               highlight the key roles of all stakeholders   resilience and better preparedness
               in ensuring increased investment for          following emergency response efforts.
               health as a priority development agenda       This will only happen if all sectors
               across various sectors.                       collaboratively position health as central
                                                             to national development.
               An intensified focus on vulnerable and
               marginalized populations in all countries,
               and especially in FCV settings, is            This brief provides a
               necessary to address the vast global          succinct, policy-oriented
               and intra-country inequalities exposed
                                                             summary of the WHO
               by the pandemic. WHO is committed to
               working with Member States and partners       position paper on building
               to support countries with FCV settings        health system resilience
               in addressing critical foundational health
                                                             during COVID-19 and
               systems issues and operationalizing the
               humanitarian-development-peace nexus.         beyond, developed
                                                             in consultation with
               The expected result of such a series of
               actions and commitments is health
                                                             WHO regional offices
               systems which are more resilient to future    and headquarters. The
               shocks in terms of maintaining quality        policy implications
               essential health services with financial
               protection while ensuring that
                                                             and recommended
               governments and communities are better        actions are targeted
               prepared to prevent, detect, manage and       at a broad audience of
               respond to health threats, including
               providing scalable surge capacity to meet
                                                             policy-makers with a
               health emergency needs.                       view to their ongoing
               The aim is thus to avoid a repeat of
                                                             role in the COVID-19
               the challenges and gaps of the past           response, health systems
               and ongoing emergency experiences,            strengthening, health and
               including the lack of adequate investment
                                                             socioeconomic recovery
                                                             and national development.
© WHO / PAHO
Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security
8      during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

    References                                                  assessment: towards a common
                                                                approach. Geneva: World Health
                                                                Organization; 2021 (forthcoming).
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