The Future of Health Systems: Advancing Health Systems Strengthening: Metrics, Learnings, and Future Directions

Abt Global hosted this eighth and final webinar in our Future of Health Systems Webinar Series to focus on today's evolving health systems landscape and how effective monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategies are indispensable for driving performance improvements in health systems and health outcomes. However, navigating through the complexities of health systems requires a nuanced approach, especially when it comes to standard indicators and global knowledge sharing as well as collation, management, and dissemination of learnings.

This webinar served as a platform to delve into these challenges and present practical solutions including the critical need for standardized metrics, evidence generation, and continuous learning in health systems strengthening programming. The webinar spotlighted the role of effective primary healthcare metrics as a pathway towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.

Panelists provided forward-looking perspectives on the future application of metrics and learning methods in health systems strengthening. The panelists discussed the need for regular and actionable data to inform ongoing adaptation which is important for making timely and effective improvements. They discussed benchmarking and using it to gain insights rather than to drive funding decisions as well as the importance of ground-up driven country-specific indicator priorities. They highlighted the use of complexity-aware monitoring and evaluation to understand the interrelationships and impact of health system strengthening interventions and the need for consistent definitions and monitoring tools across donors and organizations to enable cohesive and coordinated decision-making. They discussed the need for greater investment at the national and subnational levels as well as the importance of involving local voices in data-driven decision making. They discussed the need for simplifying data systems and making them accessible as well as integrating health measures and ensuring long-term data collection to track changes over time and improve care delivery. Watch the video to learn more!

MODERATOR: 

• Kathryn Stillman, Senior Director for Impact and Monitoring, Abt Global

PANELISTS:

• Dr. John Grove, Chief Evaluation & Learning Officer, The Global Fund
• Dr. Lisa Hirschhorn, Director, Ryan Family Center on Global Primary Care, Northwestern University
• Dr. Rachel Marcus, Senior Health Systems Strengthening Advisor, Office of Health Systems, USAID