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Building resilient and sustainable health systems

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How can health systems be strengthened in a post-Ebola world? On Sept. 26, Atul Gawande, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and executive director of Ariadne Labs, facilitated a discussion that attempted to answer that question. As the United Nations (UN) held its Sustainable Development Summit 2015, leaders from the governments of Germany, Norway, and Ghana — in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank Group, and World Health Organization — discussed the need to build resilient health systems in order to fight epidemics.

The event highlighted the launch of two initiatives aimed at strengthening health systems around the world. The Roadmap: Healthy Systems – Healthy Lives, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office, will serve as a framework to reach an agreement on priorities for strengthening health systems and an implementation strategy. And the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI), a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank Group, and World Health Organization, will help countries to more effectively measure and drive improvements in primary health care. Ariadne Labs helped develop the PHCPI, which brings together data showing primary health care conditions in low- and middle-income countries.