Health Systems

Resilient Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH)

Global Fund programs increasingly look at the health and community systems that underpin all of the HIV, TB and malaria services. The Global Fund provides detailed RSSH guidance to countries and W4GF Advocates can draw on these to make sure that Funding Requests and programs are developed and delivered in a way that services reach women and girls in all their diversity.

The Global Fund uses the term RSSH to include all the elements of health systems – like procurement of medicines and supplies; training a workforce of doctors, nurses and other health workers etc – and also if community systems. This includes Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Volunteers (CHVs) but also all of the elements of the community sector, including community based organisations (CBOs) and women-led organizations.

RSSH is very important for W4GF as it includes Community Systems Strengthening (CSS) – which is detailed from page 23 of the RSSH guidance. This includes a lot of information of community-based and community-led monitoring (CBM, CLM) – approaches like the W4GF Accountability Tool. There is also separate Global Fund guidance on CSS that will be very important for W4GF Advocates to draw on.

A key component of Global Fund programs

One of many examples of a doctor working at the community level to deliver services at the point of need – important for women to focus on all aspects of their lives and to avoid costly travel. This photo comes from the International Medical Corps at a mobile health clinic in the village of Goza, near Dadu, in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Well integrated health systems reach communities and can provide integrated care across a broad range of diseases and need.