HEALTHCARE
BUILDING
RESILIENT AND
SUSTAINABLE
SYSTEMS FOR
HEALTH
MARK DYBUL
Executive Director of the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria
96
What makes a health care system
healthy is not so different from what
makes an individual healthy. Resilience.
Sustainability. Strength.
In every country, resilient and
sustainable systems for health are
essential. Early on, the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
recognized that only with strong
systems for health can we possibly
end these epidemics.
Our partnership organization supports
AIDS, TB and malaria programs run
by local experts in countries and
communities most in need. We also
support strengthening systems for
health. The two reinforce each other.
Fighting the diseases reduces the
burden on the overall health system,
and stronger systems accelerate
progress against the diseases.
Today, of the nearly US$4 billion the
Global Fund raises and invests a year,
more than 40 percent support countries
in building resilient and sustainable
systems for health.
Increasingly, Global Fund investments
go to community facilities that provide a
range of integrated services. The facilities
offer HIV, TB and malaria prevention and
treatment programs, but they go further.
These facilities help address individuals’
multiple health needs at different points
in their lives. In Kenya, for example,
TB screening has been integrated into
the country’s antenatal care platform,
which also provides treatment to prevent
the transmission of HIV from mothers
to their babies. This has resulted in a
43 percent increase in the number of
clients screened for TB during antenatal
visits. These investments also strengthen
the important link between health
services and community responses.
Communities are always first to
respond to disease outbreaks.
Another pillar of a strong health
system is its workforce. Investments in
health worker training, expand a system’s
capacity to respond to the country’s
health needs. In Vietnam, investments in
human resources for primary care have