Health Systems
To take up the challenge to address health systems is a little daunting, to say the least. The components are complex and numerous, and the breadth of work to be done enormous. WHO’s building blocks of health systems strengthening are service delivery, health workforce, information, medical products, vaccines and technologies, financing, and leadership and governance. Alone, each piece is a challenging, but necessary component of a greater whole.
On the surface, it would seem that the key to improving health systems might be structures logistics, meeting supply and demand. But as this issue of GLOBAL HEALTH shows, at the core of health systems strengthening is people.
There is a need to foster a cadre of leaders across the globe to catalyze change. Building capacity on the ground to improve the flow of goods, services and information is a crucial component for most developing countries. Newer buildings, fancier equipment and access to information technology are not a panacea for all that ail these crumbling systems. They merely facilitate the work that needs to be done.
Also, perhaps most notably, the global health community needs to address the issues of health care workers – from training to compensation to migration. It has often been a lightning rod for great debate, but the topic of health workers is, perhaps, the most complicated and arguably the most important of all if any system is to be sustainable.
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The Editors
