Resilience in interconnected community and formal health (and connected) systems

Abstract

Enhancing the resilience of health systems to expected and unexpected shocks – from COVID-19 to the health impacts of climate change – is becoming a defining challenge of this century worldwide. To date, health system resilience research has focused on formal government health systems, yet emerging evidence points to the importance of families, communities and connected systems (such as disaster management, water, sanitation, social protection and gender disparities) that influence the health status of people, and health system functioning and capacities to respond to shocks. We argue that resilience capacities in both formal and community health systems, and connected systems, be considered in health system resilience conceptual frameworks, and that well-established literature on community resilience capacities from diverse disciplines can help frame research on community health system resilience.