Health Systems Strengthening
Primary Text“When we strengthen health systems in far regions of the world, we reduce the risk of future pandemics that can threaten our people and our economy.”
Secondary Text—President Joseph R. Biden
What is Health Systems Strengthening?
A health system consists of all people, institutions, resources, and activities whose primary purpose is to promote, restore, and maintain health. Health systems strengthening (HSS) includes the strategies, responses, and activities that are designed to sustainably improve the performance of a country’s health system. Strong health systems can flexibly adjust resources and priorities to address emerging health needs while maintaining essential services - everything from routine checkups, prenatal care, and immunizations, to referrals for more specialized or urgent medical needs. When health systems are strong, they are resilient under pressure and lead to greater health security.
Health Systems Strengthening Learning
USAID's HSS Learning Agenda aims to improve HSS approaches by generating, synthesizing, and sharing evidence related to specific research questions. This evidence is used for the design and management of USAID’s HSS programs.
USAID's HSS Case Competition enables us to better understand and share the work our programs and partners are accomplishing and its impact on health systems and health outcomes. Using real-life examples, the Case Competition allows us to learn what does and does not work when implementing and scaling up health system programs and approaches.
USAID's HSS Learning Agenda aims to improve HSS approaches by generating, synthesizing, and sharing evidence related to specific research questions. This evidence is used for the design and management of USAID’s HSS programs. As part of our Learning Agenda, USAID organizes a HSS Learning Series to convene people working in health from around the world to exchange evidence and lessons learned.
Priority Areas
Primary Health Care & Community Health Systems
Health Finance & Governance
Strategic Learning, Analytics &
Communications
Resilience & Sustainability
Pharmaceutical & Supply Chain Systems
Projects
Featured Stories of Impact
Where We Work
USAID works with countries around the world to support their health systems strengthening efforts.
** We are working on updating our Where We Work map. Please check back soon.**
