Global health initiatives and health systems strengthening: the challenge of providing technical support

Clare Dickinson, June 2008

There is growing political and financial commitment to strengthening health systems, both to achieve the goals of targeted disease programmes and to contribute towards achievement of the health Millennium Development Goals. But financial support needs to go hand in hand with strengthening country capacity at national and local level. This paper discusses some of the approaches to technical support taken so far, looks at problems and possible solutions. By doing so, it hopes to stimulate discussion around a topic which is receiving increasing attention by agencies and partner countries.

The paper argues that provision of technical support for health systems strengthening needs to be scaled up considerably, but in ways that best fit country realities on the ground. Technical support approaches need to take into account the complexity of a country’s national health system and the context within which it operates.