Health Systems Readiness and Responsiveness Working Group

The Health Systems Readiness and Resilience Working Group believes in working towards strengthening health systems globally, and further aims to conduct research on the different mechanisms for health systems strengthening worldwide.

Understanding how health systems across each WHO region are currently being strengthened, as well as highlighting best practices from these regions are the primary goals of the group. In 2021, members from the group put together a video documentary of IWG members to highlight perspectives from their regions on what lessons can be learned to embolden health systems during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Featured, in order of appearance: Marali Singaraju, Jana Sakakani, Ralph Cepeda, Ahana Gosh, Sucheta Tiwari, Nadine Nanji.

According to the WHO,

“A well-functioning health system working in harmony is built on having trained and motivated health workers, a well-maintained infrastructure, and a reliable supply of medicines and technologies, backed by adequate funding, strong health plans and evidence-based policies. At the same time, because of the interconnectedness of our globalised world, health systems need to have the capacity to control and address global public health threats such as epidemic diseases and other severe events.”

Health systems include all the people, power, processes, policies, and infrastructure that influence people’s health.

This film was created by the Health Systems Readiness and Responsiveness Working Group in 2021 as a representation of how front line workers thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite them suffering from burnout and having to work in existing fragile health systems, this film mentions contextual examples of health systems resilience. Also, this film elaborates on how frontline workers (of all types) have the ability to thrive and innovate despite crises situations which came to surface during the pandemic. Overall, this film provides lessons for us to build back better health systems in the future.

The film was directed by Nadine Nanji (AFR), and edited by Bronte Davies (AFR).