How we strengthen health systems
Recent media reporting on the recent Covid-19 outbreak in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been a reminder to Australians of the resource constrained nature of PNG’s health system, and the immense geographical challenges that it must overcome in delivering services to population.
Our Health Systems Governance and Financing Unit team work with experts across the Institute and partners throughout East Asia and the Pacific to understand how government and donor resources can best be used to strengthen health systems in the current context.
In PNG, we are supporting the National Department of Health’s next strategic plan with an analysis of the costs of the primary health care system. We are also part of a team evaluating efforts to strengthen maternal and child health care across the country.
Working with our Maternal Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit, and partners in the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste , we are strengthening the provision of sexual and reproductive health services, and responses to violence against women and girls.
At a regional level, we are conducting a review of the reforms to primary care systems that countries have made in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, including those to facilitate the public health response, and those aiming to ensure the continued provision of routine services.
Taking a system approach to other social and economic systems that can improve health, the unit is also part of team assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the animal health system in Cambodia. We see this and other broader systems ;in which we are engaged as essential global health work, and as the Covid-19 outbreak has shown, key to improving population health outcomes around the world.
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