Providing health services in fragile states and conflict affected settings is a challenge. To help address this challenge, a new Health and Fragile States Network was created in October 2007 by a group of interested agencies and donors. The aim is to stimulate the policy and research agenda around how to best organise and finance health services in these environments. The Steering Committee consists of representatives from DFID, European Commission, HealthNet TPO, International Medical Corps (IMC), International Rescue Committee (IRC-UK), Merlin, Save the Children UK, University of New South Wales Sydney, UNICEF, World Bank and WHO. The Secretariat is hosted at the Conflict and Health Programme at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The Network is aimed at health professionals and others interested in health issues and health system strengthening in fragile states.
The objectives of the Network are to:
- foster dialogue and debate, raise awareness and advocate for best practice on a variety of different issues related to health in fragile states
- inform and influence policy issues related to health in fragile states
- identify research topics, elicit funding for research and commission research in order to strengthen the evidence base
- improve knowledge management by documenting the evidence base and widely disseminating lessons learned
- encourage links to other sectors, such as governance, education and livelihoods.