Key role of governance and accountability to achieve integrated people-centred health services

Models of integrated care continue to evolve globally with the goal to deliver more integrated people-centred health services. These models are characterized by innovative collaborations and partnerships across sectors. One enduring question relates to the best governance structures for these complex, multi-player systems and networks. Governance encompasses all aspects of managing health services delivery to support health system goals, including financing, human resources, and technology, and it is a critical instrument to strengthen public and institutional performance.

The current pandemic is a good reminder that circumstances and environments strongly influence health and well-being. It emphasizes the need to focus on whole-systems health, which cuts across political, economic, and social landscapes. Whole-system health requires governance that is agile and can respond quickly to emerging changes to manage the complex interdependent partnerships in integrated health systems. It further points to the need for diffusion of governance from a state/health services centred ...

Community Responses to COVID-19: From the Horn of Africa to the Solomon Islands

While this pandemic has the potential to fracture societies, it is the resilience, solidarity, strength, and ingenuity of communities that will help overcome this crisis.

Highlights

• Community-driven development (CDD) programs, which put people at the center of designing their own solutions, are a critical part of the World Bank’s response to the global COVID-19 crisis.

• The Bank is supporting countries in Horn of Africa and in Solomon Islands through CDD programs that are delivering cash and basic services to the most vulnerable.

• To tackle a crisis of this magnitude and scale, countries need an equitable, whole-of-society approach, which lies at the heart of CDD programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have devastating impacts on people, with a disproportionate impact on the poor and the most vulnerable, who lack the coping mechanisms and essential services they need.

In a crisis of this magnitude, no single intervention is enough, and countries ...