The Global Learning Collaborative for Health Systems Resilience, a newly set-up learning collaborative by ACCESS Health, held the first meeting of its Technical Advisory Group on April 21. Set up with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the GLC4HSR is a voluntary global collaborative that will bring together a network of health systems experts, practitioners, and policymakers with a vision to build better, more resilient, health systems. ACCESS Health currently serves as its global secretariat.

The GLC4HSR was officially launched on March 11, 2022 and has twenty plus members and ten highly regarded global health experts serving as technical advisors. The technical advisory group will play the critical role of a mentor and a sounding board to the GLC4HSR’s work. The advisors represent different geographic regions and hold expertise in important sub thematic areas of resilience. Being the first meeting of the TAG, ACCESS Health presented a detailed overview of the structure and approach of the GLC4HSR and the work done so far and invited comments and feedback on ways this crucial initial phase of fostering the Collaborative can be strengthened.

The advisors who participated in the first TAG meeting include Ms. Preeti Sudan - Ex- Health Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family welfare, India, Dr. Aida Karazhanova – United Nations-Economic and Social commission for Asia-Pacific region, Prof. Bach Tran – Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam, Mr. Stefan Nachuk – Advisor- Health System, BMGF INDIA, Dr. K. Srinath Reddy – President -Public health foundation India, and Prof. Shalini Bharat –Vice Chancellor and Director – Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India

Regional Director (South Asia) of ACCESS Health, Dr. Krishna Reddy presented the GLC4HSR journey: Context, Purpose of collaborative, guiding principles, evolving structure of the collaborative; partners/members, governance, workstreams, learning process, sustainability requirements. He also brought the TAG’s attention towards areas where their guidance is required.

The advisors congratulated the team for a clear and well defined structure and provided feedback and ways to strengthen the Collaborative. Some of the key recommendations given by the advisors were:

1. Need to focus on the identification of right champions in each country or for each theme/ subtheme
2. Have flexibility to change gear and course correct as per the emerging needs
3. Translate learning into actions and ways to measure the impact of these on health systems
4. Evaluate resilience in terms of each of the building blocks - health workforce, health goods and supply chains, health information systems, financial resilience etc.
5. Seeking the help of advisors in connecting with key stakeholders and other networks

The GLC4HSR platform will facilitate practical and reciprocal knowledge sharing and the co-creation of effective HSR strategies.  GLC4HSR members will contribute to the knowledge base of best practices to strengthen HSR, while benefiting from cross-border learnings and collaboration opportunities.