Enhancing Health System Resilience: Practical Tools and Strategies for Resilient Health Systems

Course benefits at a glance

• Gain practical skills in resilience mapping, capacity assessment, preparedness planning, and resilience measurement that can be applied immediately in your professional setting
• Strengthen your ability to design, communicate, and evaluate resilience strategies that promote preparedness, effective governance, and equitable outcomes during crises
• Learn from global experts and peers through real-world case studies, interactive learning activities, and a growing community of practice focused on strengthening health system resilience

Course overview

Health systems worldwide face increasingly complex and overlapping challenges, including disease outbreaks, climate-related disasters, conflict, economic shocks, and social instability. These events expose weaknesses within health systems and often worsen existing inequities.

This practical eight-week online short course equips policymakers, health professionals, programme managers, researchers, and community leaders with tools and strategies to strengthen health system resilience. Through systems thinking, real-world case studies, and applied exercises, participants will learn how to analyse vulnerabilities, strengthen preparedness and response, incorporate equity considerations, and measure resilience in their own contexts.

Three live sessions delivered on Wednesday 3rd March, 17th March, 7th April 2027, all at 1-3pm (UK time)

Throughout the course, participants will progressively build a portfolio that brings together the practical tools, analyses and action plans developed during each module. By the end of the course, participants will have a collection of applied outputs that can be used to inform policy, programmes, research and health system decision-making in their own setting.

Participants who successfully engage with course activities will receive an electronic Certificate of Completion from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Course Aims

This course aims to equip participants with practical tools and approaches to strengthen health system resilience in the face of shocks, stressors, and crises.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain key concepts and principles of health system resilience
• Apply systems thinking approaches to analyse vulnerabilities and capacities within health systems
• Develop preparedness and response strategies for health system shocks and emergencies
• Assess how shocks and stressors affect vulnerable populations and apply equity considerations to resilience planning
• Use practical tools to measure and monitor health system resilience
• Develop context-appropriate approaches to support learning, adaptation, and future resilience

Teaching approaches:

Asynchronous content (approximately 3-4 hours of self-study per week): Accessible via LSTM’s virtual learning platform and including pre-recorded lectures, curated readings, practical tools, case studies, guided activities, and reflection/discussion forums. Participants will progressively develop a portfolio of resilience tools and strategies that can be applied within their own professional contexts.

Synchronous sessions: Three live online sessions (approximately 1.5 hours each) will be delivered on Wednesdays from 1–3 PM, UK time, during Weeks 3, 5 and 8 (3rd March, 17th March, 7th April 2027). These will provide opportunities for interactive discussion, application of practical tools, peer learning, feedback, and final presentations.

Course content

1. Foundations of health system resilience and systems thinking
2. Preparedness, response, and multi-sectoral governance
3. Equity, vulnerability, and inclusion in resilience planning
4. Measuring resilience and strengthening future-ready health systems
5. Applying practical tools to real-world health system challenges

Course Structure

Week 1

Foundations of health system resilience

Key concepts, systems thinking, shocks and stressors

System capacities, resilience mapping and capacity gap analysis

Timing: Up to 4-5 hours including pre-recorded lectures, readings and interactive activities

Week 2

Crisis Preparedness

Anticipation, planning, surveillance systems, coordination mechanisms, risk assessment, and operational readiness.

Timing: Up to 3-4 hours, including pre-recorded lectures, readings, and activities

Week 3

Crisis Response and Multi-sectoral Governance

Decision-making during crises, adaptive management, stakeholder coordination, communication, accountability, and public trust.

Live Session 1: Testing Preparedness and Response Strategies

Timing: Up to 4-5 hours including activities and a live session on Wednesday 3rd March 2027, 1-3 pm GMT.

Week 4

Equity, Vulnerability and Inclusion

How shocks and stressors affect different population groups, vulnerability and risk assessments, and identifying inequities within health systems

Timing: Up to 3-4 hours, including lectures, readings, and activities

Week 5

Applying Equity in Practice

Using a practical Equity Checklist to assess resilience strategies, identify gaps, and strengthen inclusion and equitable outcomes

Live Session 2: Equity in Practice

Timing: Up to 4-5 hours, including activities and a live session on Wednesday 17th March 2027, 1-3 pm GMT

Week 6

Portfolio Development, Reflection and Peer Learning

Participants consolidate and submit the outputs developed throughout the course, reflect on their application to their own context, and provide peer feedback on resilience strategies developed by other participants

Timing: Up to 2-3 hours

Week 7

Measuring Health System Resilience

Indicators of resilient health systems, sources of evidence, measuring resilience in stable and crisis contexts, and assessing equity impacts.

Timing: Up to 3-4 hours, including lectures, readings, and applied activities.

Week 8

Future Systems, Innovation and Learning for Resilience

Building future-ready health systems, strengthening evidence generation during crises, learning and adaptation, digital innovations, and the use of AI to support resilience

Live Session 3: Looking Forward – Measuring and Learning

Timing: Up to 4-5 hours, including activities and a live session on Wednesday 7th April 2027, 1-3 pm GMT

Course tutors

• Dr Jacinta Nzinga – Senior Lecturer in International Public Health, Institute for Resilient Health Systems
• Dr Kerry Millington – Director, Centre for Tuberculosis Research; Senior Research & Policy Associate
• Dr Rahab Mbau – Post-Doctoral Research associate in health systems, Institute for Resilient Health Systems
• Dr Maryse Kok – Reader in Health Systems and Social Sciences, Institute for Resilient Health Systems
• Dr Moses Kumwenda – Lecturer in Health Systems, Institute for Resilient Health Systems
• Dr Gillian Turner – Principal Research Associate in Health Economics and Financing, Global Health Economics and Financing Unit & Institute for Resilient Health Systems
• Dr Tilly Fox – Senior Research Associate, Institute for Resilient Health Systems
• Ms Mercy Terer – PhD Researcher, Institute for Resilient Health Systems, Department of Clinical Sciences

Course Advisors

• Professor Miriam Taegtmeyer – Head of Clinical Sciences and Co-Director, Institute for Resilient Health Systems
• Professor Joanna Raven – Deputy Head of International Public Health and Co-Director, Institute for Resilient Health Systems

Entrance Requirements

Course pre-requisites:

No formal pre-requisites

Academic requirements:

Participants are expected to have a background or interest in public health, health systems, healthcare delivery, health policy, humanitarian response, development practice, or related fields.

A bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience is desirable.

Technical requirements:

Reliable internet access

Ability to access online learning platforms and participate in virtual discussions