Resource Type: Report
Authors: Joseph Naimoli and Sweta Saxena
Published: April 2016

Resource Description:

The “Impact of Health Systems Strengthening on Health Systems Performance and Outcomes-Marshalling the Evidence: A Status Report” is a USAID Office of Health Systems publication. HFG contributed to key pieces of the evidence, which are described in this summary document.

Evidence is scarce, scattered, and not widely disseminated on how reforms and interventions to strengthen health system performance in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) contribute to sustained improvements in health status, particularly toward ending preventable child and maternal deaths (EPCMD), fostering an AIDS-free generation, and protecting communities from infectious diseases. Without this evidence, decision-makers lack a sound basis for investing scarce health funds in health systems strengthening in an environment of competing investment options.

As LMICs embark on a path towards universal health coverage, this evidence gap could continue to hinder support for HSS from numerous stakeholders. The field of HSS is relatively young, and systems-level interventions are inherently complex; consequently, the evidence base for HSS reforms and interventions and their impacts on health outcomes is limited and less robust than for technical health interventions. To enhance its understanding of the impact of HSS on health systems performance and health outcomes, USAID’s Office of Health Systems (OHS) has adopted an integrated approach to marshalling the evidence on this relationship. This initiative comprises 11 activities.