Health systems are devised to provide an appropriate response to the health needs of the population, ensuring equitable access and also protecting the population from the consequences of ill health. The challenge is that delivery of health services needs to be implemented whilst ensuring a balance with appropriate utilisation of available resources. When health resources are disproportionately distributed, as is often the case, the result is the weakening or even breakdown of service delivery.

The World Health Organisation (2000) defined six functions, or building blocks of health systems: Leadership and governance, Service delivery, Human resources for health, Medical products, vaccines and technology, Health information system, and Health financing. These building blocks provide a common terminology for discussing key health system functions, and can be used in describing and assessing sectors of health systems, such as health care. Through the progressive introduction of health systems concepts to humanitarian health, there is an increasing need for better understanding of how health systems are affected by and respond to humanitarian crises and function according to each of the key building blocks. This course aims to provide an understanding of synergy between the building blocks for health systems during humanitarian crises and its applicability at local level.

Objectives of the course

The primary purpose of this intensive 5-day course is to familiarise participants with a health systems approach to health care for communities in low and middle countries affected by humanitarian crises, through using practical interactive examples and case studies, and taught by experts who come from or have lived and worked in low and middle income countries during or after humanitarian crises. By the end of the course, the students will be able to:

• Define concepts related to health systems and the six building blocks of the WHO framework.
• Assess the main characteristics of humanitarian health interventions (facility-based, outreach, community-based activities, horizontal versus vertical) and relate to it health system challenges in various areas: financing, human resources, health information system, governance, service delivery, and technology.
• Apply the health system assessment guideline tool in order to translate a local situation analysis into concrete humanitarian interventions.

Structure of the course

• Introduction to health systems, system thinking, the role of governance, and the Health Systems Assessment tool
• Health service delivery and quality
• Health workforce, health technologies, and health information systems
• Health systems financing
• Presentation of the Health System Assessment using a real-life case study

Workload

Around 50 hours of work for the whole course, including:

• 30 hours of face-to-face teaching through a mixture of interactive lectures, case studies, discussions, and group and individual exercises.
• 10 hours of self-study time including reading, writing and group interactions