Making Health Systems Work in Low and Middle Income Countries

Sameen Siddiqi is Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Pakistan. He has previously served as Director, Health System Development WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean where he spearheaded the work on universal health coverage, WHO's Representative to Lebanon and Iran, and worked for the World Bank in Pakistan. He has been advising L&MICs on strengthening health systems for over two decades, and has special interest in health system governance, private health sector and public private partnership, and quality and safety of care. He has multiple publications and book chapters, serves on the editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals and several international committees on global health. Awad Mataria is the Director of Universal Health Coverage/Health Systems at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. He has more than 18 years' experience in health systems strengthening, health economics and health financing. For the last 12 years, he has supported countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region to strengthen their health systems with focus on health financing reforms. At present, Dr Mataria is spearheading WHO's health system rebuilding efforts in the twenty-two countries of the Eastern-Mediterranean Region, leveraging the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. Katherine D. Rouleau is a family physician at Unity Health- St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, Vice-Chair of the Global Health & Social Accountability program and is director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto. She was the founding director of the Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine at the College of Family Physicians of Canada and has worked with numerous collaborators over a 25-year career committed to primary care strengthening and family medicine in L&MICs, including collaboration with partners from, Ethiopia, Haiti, Brazil, China and Chile. She has worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization on various endeavours related to advancing PHC. Her academic, clinical and leadership interests center on improving health equity and addressing the complex health needs of individuals and communities impacted by adverse determinants of health through high quality primary care at macro, meso and micro levels. Meesha Iqbal is a PhD student at UTHealth School of Public Health Houston, USA, with interest in health systems governance and strengthening, private sector engagement and universal health coverage. She has worked as a consultant with the Aga Khan University, World Health Organization and International Labour Organization, carrying out regional and national situation analyses related to engagement of private sector in healthcare delivery and child labour in domestic work. She has also contributed to epidemiological assessments of health status of vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on child labour and intimate partner violence. Her recent work engulfs assessment and improvement of community preparedness to disasters and pandemics in Idaho, USA.

• Section I. Analysing Health Systems: Concepts, Components, Performance: 1. Introduction to health systems: Setting the scene; 2. Health systems based on primary health care; 3. Universal health coverage and health system strengthening; 4. Health system governance: Concepts, principles and practice; 5. Financing health care: Revenue raising, pooling, and purchasing; 6. Health workforce in low and middle income countries: Concepts and dynamics unpacked; 7. The pharmaceutical system and its components: Regulation and management and associated challenges; 8. Health information systems: Data for decision-making in health systems; 9. The organization and management of health services; 10. Health services delivery: Key concepts and characteristics; 11. Role and contribution of the community in health system strengthening; 12. Performing health systems: Attributes and approaches to assessment; 13. Decision-making tools for informed decisions by health policymakers and managers; 14. Health policy and systems research: The role of implementation research; Section II. Transforming Health Systems: Confronting Challenges, Seizing Opportunities: 15. Universal health coverage and beyond: Health system interventions and intersectoral policies; 16. Pro-poor expansion of universal health coverage: Health financing strategies and options; 17. Health insurance for advancing universal health coverage: Disentangling its complexities; 18. From passive to strategic purchasing in low and middle income countries: The what and how of getting the most from limited resources; 19. Good governance and leadership for better health systems; 20. Developing a balanced health workforce: Understanding the health labor market dynamics; 21. Enhancing equitable access to essential medicines and health technologies; 22. Health information and information technology: The path from data to decision; 23. Using health research for evidence-informed decisions in health systems in L&MICs; 24. Integrated people-centred health care: What is it and how it's done!; 25. Strengthening hospital governance and management to become high-performing organizations; 26. Improving the quality and safety of health care in low and middle income countries: What works!; 27. Harnessing the contribution of the private health sector toward public health goals; 28. Public-private partnership in health care services; 29. Embedding people's voice and ensuring participatory governance: Lessons from the Thai experience in community engagement; 30. Achieving health-related sustainable development goals: Role of health systems strengthening; 31. The determinants of health systems: Upstream approach to addressing health and social inequities; 32. Integrating essential public health functions in health systems: Ensuring health security; 33. Engaging in a health care recovery process; 34. Health system response to the covid-19 pandemic: Fault lines exposed and lessons learned; 35. Understanding the global health architecture: Toward greater 'donor' independence; 36. Political economy of health reforms in low and middle income countries; 37. Better health systems for better outcomes: How to make it happen!