A Way Forward for Building Resilient Health Systems : Lessons Learned from Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus

This report looks at resilience through national health system lenses and provides lessons to strengthen health systems for future shocks. The findings are based on case studies from five countries in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), as well as focus group discussions with the population and health care workers in Georgia, Armenia, and Moldova. The following section provides the definition and examples of health system resilience. This is followed by descriptions of the baseline characteristics of the five Eastern European and South Caucasus countries' health systems pre-pandemic performance, which determined most of their capacity and decisions to deal with the shock. The rest of this report reviews key baseline characteristics of the health systems in the countries, which are followed by lessons from the countries' responses to the pandemic (a summary of each country case study is provided in Annex A). The report concludes with recommendations for building the strong and resilient health systems needed to protect human capital through shocks and crises