The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption worldwide highlighting once again the interdependency of health and socioeconomic development, and the global lack of health systems resilience. Two years into the pandemic, most countries report sustained disruptions across service delivery platforms and health areas with a profound impact on health outcomes. The impact of these disruptions is magnified within marginalized communities and in countries experiencing protracted conflict. There is an urgent need to focus on recovery through investment in the essential public health functions (EPHFs) and the foundations of health systems with a focus on primary health care, and whole-of-government and -society engagement. The aim of this Research Topic is to gather, transfer and promote operationalization of key experiences from COVID-19 to inform global and country level recovery that better promote health; guide policy direction towards building health systems resilience; and thereby ensure economic and social prosperity.
Experience with COVID-19 has demonstrated that traditional approaches to health system strengthening have failed to achieve the complementary goals of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health security with the divide between the most vulnerable and well-off only widening. Much of what had been learned from previous experiences such as Ebola in West Africa has not been widely applied. This has left health and economic systems vulnerable to 21 st century public health challenges, ranging from conflict and natural disasters to aging demographics and rising rates of non-communicable and communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance. These challenges require intentional focus and investment as well as whole-of-government and -society engagement with health to build health system resilience. Greater action is needed to prevent the devastating effects of war and conflict on the health of the most vulnerable. This Research Topic will convene the knowledge and practices of leaders in public health, health systems, and humanitarian and development sectors. This is to ensure lessons from COVID-19 inform the recovery agenda and promote sustainable health and socioeconomic recovery for all. Lest we forget and find ourselves again unprepared and vulnerable in the face of an even greater threat.
The focus of this Research Topic is on health systems recovery in the context of COVID-19 and protracted conflict. Evaluations of interventions will be highly regarded. We solicit contributions from diverse actors (e.g. academics, policymakers, and practitioners) across sectors and disciplines (e.g. public health, humanitarian, development, and economics) under the following sub-themes:
The economic policy in recovery and leveraging investments to support health systems strengthening including preparedness capacities;
The role of institutions in promoting enabling environments for health that promote research, innovation, and learning;
Strengthening primary health care and essential public health functions in health systems recovery and addressing health inequalities;
Institutionalizing multisectoral approaches to health underpinning the One Health approach;
Health systems strengthening by operationalizing the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus (HDPN) in fragile, conflict-affected, and violent (FCV) settings;
Tools and approaches to operationalise health systems resilience with a special focus to FCV settings.
The Topic Editors welcome original research, systematic reviews, reviews, methods, policy, and practice reviews, and community case studies.
For any questions pre-submission please contact the commissioning team at publichealth.submissions@frontiersin.org.
If you have any questions post-submission please contact the editorial team at publichealth.editorial.office@frontiersin.org.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption worldwide highlighting once again the interdependency of health and socioeconomic development, and the global lack of health systems resilience. Two years into the pandemic, most countries report sustained disruptions across service delivery platforms and health areas with a profound impact on health outcomes. The impact of these disruptions is magnified within marginalized communities and in countries experiencing protracted conflict. There is an urgent need to focus on recovery through investment in the essential public health functions (EPHFs) and the foundations of health systems with a focus on primary health care, and whole-of-government and -society engagement. The aim of this Research Topic is to gather, transfer and promote operationalization of key experiences from COVID-19 to inform global and country level recovery that better promote health; guide policy direction towards building health systems resilience; and thereby ensure economic and social prosperity.
Experience with COVID-19 has demonstrated that traditional approaches to health system strengthening have failed to achieve the complementary goals of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health security with the divide between the most vulnerable and well-off only widening. Much of what had been learned from previous experiences such as Ebola in West Africa has not been widely applied. This has left health and economic systems vulnerable to 21 st century public health challenges, ranging from conflict and natural disasters to aging demographics and rising rates of non-communicable and communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance. These challenges require intentional focus and investment as well as whole-of-government and -society engagement with health to build health system resilience. Greater action is needed to prevent the devastating effects of war and conflict on the health of the most vulnerable. This Research Topic will convene the knowledge and practices of leaders in public health, health systems, and humanitarian and development sectors. This is to ensure lessons from COVID-19 inform the recovery agenda and promote sustainable health and socioeconomic recovery for all. Lest we forget and find ourselves again unprepared and vulnerable in the face of an even greater threat.
The focus of this Research Topic is on health systems recovery in the context of COVID-19 and protracted conflict. Evaluations of interventions will be highly regarded. We solicit contributions from diverse actors (e.g. academics, policymakers, and practitioners) across sectors and disciplines (e.g. public health, humanitarian, development, and economics) under the following sub-themes:
The economic policy in recovery and leveraging investments to support health systems strengthening including preparedness capacities;
The role of institutions in promoting enabling environments for health that promote research, innovation, and learning;
Strengthening primary health care and essential public health functions in health systems recovery and addressing health inequalities;
Institutionalizing multisectoral approaches to health underpinning the One Health approach;
Health systems strengthening by operationalizing the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus (HDPN) in fragile, conflict-affected, and violent (FCV) settings;
Tools and approaches to operationalise health systems resilience with a special focus to FCV settings.
The Topic Editors welcome original research, systematic reviews, reviews, methods, policy, and practice reviews, and community case studies.
For any questions pre-submission please contact the commissioning team at publichealth.submissions@frontiersin.org.
If you have any questions post-submission please contact the editorial team at publichealth.editorial.office@frontiersin.org.