ReBUILD for Resilience: Helping health systems respond to and recover from crisis

The Challenge

Fragile contexts are home to more than 1.8 billion people or a quarter of the world’s population. This is expected to rise to 2.2 billion by 2030. Health systems in these contexts face severe resource constraints and are subject to severe shocks and stressors, such as conflict, outbreaks, and climate challenges.

These shocks can severely impact the delivery of essential health services, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. There’s an urgent need to build health systems that can not only absorb these shocks but also adapt and transform to provide equitable, quality health care.

About the Project

ReBUILD for Resilience is an international research consortium dedicated to enhancing the resilience of health systems in fragile and shock-prone environments. We focus on producing high-quality, practical, multidisciplinary, and scalable research that can be used to improve the health and lives of millions of people.

Our core contexts are Lebanon, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sierra Leone. We are also working in Syria, Yemen, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, and Turkey.

Our Strategies & Approaches

We adapt our approach to fit the needs of each fragile or shock-prone setting, but always seek to drive meaningful and sustainable change.

Co-production of Solutions

We work with health workers, communities, and policymakers to shape research questions and design locally relevant solutions. For example, in Sierra Leone, our teams engaged district officials and civil society in joint planning sessions, helping them to mobilise and address health concerns, and ensuring that post-crisis recovery reflected local priorities and realities.

Evidence-Informed Decision-Making

We support decision-makers in gathering, interpreting, and acting on data for better health planning. For example, in Nepal, we established a learning site to help strengthen the capacity of local government in health sector governance and planning.

Gendered Analysis

ReBUILD’s work has sought to identify and address the gender norms and power dynamics within communities and health systems that affect healthcare workers. For example, in Lebanon, participatory action research was used to help close-to-community healthcare providers co-develop low-cost interventions to address harmful gender norms.

Community Engagement and Inclusion

We amplify the voices of communities, especially displaced people and those with disabilities, to ensure services reflect their needs. In Myanmar, a liminal health systems study explored the health-seeking behaviour of migrants and internally-displaced people from Myanmar along the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Capacity Strengthening

We equip partner institutions, in-country partners and early-career researchers with the skills needed to carry out quality, impactful research. Across all contexts, early and mid-career researchers have played significant roles in fieldwork, contributing to publications, and strengthening links between evidence and practice through practical learning.

Our Key Findings & Impact

The ReBUILD team is currently synthesising its findings into a comprehensive series of policy briefs and papers. These will be available soon. In the meantime, explore our extensive range of projects and their outputs. You will also find our latest case studies here.

Our Partners

ReBUILD for Resilience collaborates with a diverse group of institutions:

• American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
• HERD International (Nepal)
• Burnet Institute (Myanmar)
• Institute for Development (Sierra Leone)
• Queen Margaret University (UK)

Resources

Explore this database of resources produced by the ReBUILD for Resilience programme and its predecessor, ReBUILD.