Healthcare systems around the world are grappling with the same problems, delivering services amid resource constraints and increased demand, amid aging and growing populations, rises in non-communicable diseases and the impacts of climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these issues and starkly exposed weaknesses in health systems.

This crisis prompts important questions about how health systems are made more resilient to future crises, and sustainable in the face of long-term pressures.

As a response to this, the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) was established in 2020 by the London School of Economics, the World Economic Forum, and AstraZeneca, who were later joined by global-level partners that include Philips, KPMG, the WHO Foundation and CAPRI, the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation. The partnership also includes additional organisations at the regional and national levels.

Through its work, the PHSSR and its partners collaborate with academic, non-governmental, life sciences, healthcare and business organisations to build knowledge and guide action through research reports that offer evidence-informed policy recommendations to improve the sustainability and resilience of healthcare systems.

The research, commissioned by the PHSSR, examines domestic healthcare systems using a framework designed by LSE academics. In order to identify system strengths, potential weaknesses, opportunities and risks, the framework examines seven key domain areas: financing, governance, workforce, medicines and technology, service delivery, population health, and environmental sustainability.