ReBUILD
ReBUILD for Resilience: Health System Resilience in Fragile Settings Experiencing Violence, Conflict, Pandemics and Other Shocks
ReBUILD for Resilience (R4R) is an international research consortium that aims to produce high-quality, practical, multidisciplinary and scalable research which can be used to improve the health and lives of many millions of people. R4R is funded by the UK government and running from 2020-2026. Key project objectives are:
- To influence national governments, funding agencies, implementing agencies and other bodies such as and PBF communities of practice into developing more context-specific, embedded and sustainable approaches to PBF;
- To support the modification of health financing and social protection policy and mechanisms to better assure conflict-affected households’ access to health care;
- To explore the new vulnerabilities emerging from conflict in relation to health care access and identify the gaps in social protection policies responding to these vulnerabilities resulting from demographic change.
¾«Æ·¶ÌÊÓ's role in this project
We are supporting partners in Lebanon, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Nepal, and also lead on a number of responsive fund projects in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. As well as providing technical co-direction for the full ReBUILD programme, researchers from the Institute for Global Health and Development at ¾«Æ·¶ÌÊÓ led in the following areas:
Performance-based financing (PBF)
Our research in this area aimed to understand the proliferation of PBF programmes in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS), including humanitarian settings, their impacts on political economy and how they have affected health system purchasing.
Demographic and distributional impacts of conflict and the impact on household vulnerability: generation, gender and disability (GENDIS)
This area of work researched the uneven distribution of demographic change in three conflict-affected countries and the impact on household vulnerability and health care access.
Thematic Working Group on Health Systems in Fragile and Conflict Affected States
Staff at IGHD are heavily involved in the Steering Committee of the Thematic Working Group (TWG) on Health Systems in Fragile and Conflict Affected States (FCAS), one of 10 TWGs of Health Systems Global. The TWG FCAS brings together researchers, policy makers, funders and implementers working in fragile and conflict affected states to achieve better health, equity and well-being by strengthening health policy and systems research in these challenging contexts.
The ReBUILD for Resilience partners are: ; ; ; ; and .
For information on the full range of ReBUILD projects, see the main
- Project publications
- Podcasts
- Recent Case Studies
- Recent Presentations
- Responsive Fund Projects
2024 Academic paper -ÌýThan, K., Bertone, M. P., La, T., & Witter, S. (2024). .ÌýInternational Journal for Equity in Health,Ìý23(1), 221.
2024 - Policy paper - Witter, S., & Baker, P. (2024).Ìý. Center for Global Development.
2024 - Academic paper - Fortnam, M., Hailey, P., Witter, S., & Balfour, N. (2024). ÌýSSM-Health Systems,Ìý3, 100027.
2023 - Academic paper - Regmi, S., Bertone, M., Shrestha, P., Sapkota, S., Arjyal, A., Martineau, T., Raven, J., Witter, S., Baral, S. (2023) . Forthcoming with BMC Health Services Research.
2023 - Academic paper -ÌýWitter, S., Thomas, S., Topp, S., Barasa, E., Chopra, M., Cobos, D., Blanchet, K., Teddy, G., Atun, R., Ager, A. (2023) : a critical review and reconceptualisation. Lancet Global Health, 11, 9, e1454-e1458.
2023 - Academic paper - Kyaw, H.K., Than, K. K., Diaconu, K., Witter, S. (2023) : a qualitative case study from Myanmar. International Journal for Equity in Health, 22:39.
2022 - Academic paper -ÌýGooding, K., Bertone, M., Loffreda, G., Witter, S. (2022) ? Findings from a synthesis of experience across countries facing shocks. BMC Health Services Research special edition on resilience, 22:1441.
July 2019 - Academic paper -ÌýWitter, S., Palmer, N., Balabanova, D., Mounier-Jack, S., Martineau, T., Klicpera, A., Jensen, C., Pugliese-Garcia, M. and Gilson, L. (2019) Health system strengthening-Reflections on its meaning, assessment, and our state of knowledge International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 34(4).
February 2019 - Research Summary -ÌýThis summary document gives an overview of the projects and research themes which have made up ReBUILD’s work, with links to all of ReBUILD’s theme-specific resources lists and complete published outputs online. See this summary over on
January 2019 - Academic paper - Witter, S., Bertone, M.P., Namakula, J., Chandiwana, P., Chirwa, Y., Ssenvonio, A., and Ssengoobe, F. (2019) (How) does RBF strengthen strategic purchasing of health care? Comparing the experience of Uganda, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Global Health Research and Policy, 4(3).
January 2019 - Blog (French language) - Prof Sophie Witter, Systèmes de santé fragiles et affectés par les conflits: réduire la fracture linguistique.
December 2018 -ÌýBriefing papersÌý(French language) - French versions of theÌýbriefing papers which were produced earlier in the project. They address key questions on health systems strengthening in settings affected by conflict or crisis. Read the papers over on
November 2018 - Academic paper - Bertone, M. P., Martins, J. S., Pereira, S. M., Martineau, T., and Alonso-Garbayo, A. (2018) Understanding HRH recruitment in post-conflict settings: an analysis of central-level policies and processes in Timor-Leste (1999–2018) Human Resources for Health, 16 (66).
October 2018 - Webinar - Performance based financing in fragile and conflict-affected settings: from research to practice. 31 October 2018.
October 2018 - Academic Paper - Bertone, M. P., Wurie, H., Samai, M., Witter, S. (2018) The bumpy trajectory of performance-based financing for healthcare in Sierra Leone: agency, structure and frames shaping the policy process. Globalisation and Health, 14 (99).
September 2018 - Briefing paper - a briefing paper which summarises ReBUILD's work towards performance-based financing (PBF) in fragile and conflict-affected states. Read the paper over on
June 2017 and July 2018 -ÌýBriefing papersÌý- 9 briefing papers have been produced which address key questions on health systems strengthening in settings affected by conflict or crisis. Read the papers over on
June 2018Ìý-ÌýAcademic Paper - Bertone, Maria Paola and Jacobs, Eelco and Toonen, Jurrien and Akwataghibe, Ngozi and Witter, Sophie (2018) Performance-based financing in three humanitarian settings: principles and pragmatism. Conflict and Health, 12 (28). ISSN 1752-1505 Ìý
May 2018 – Academic Paper - Raven, Joanna and Wurie, Haja and Witter, Sophie (2018) Health workers’ experiences of coping with the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone’s health system: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 18 (1). p. 251. ISSN 1472-6963 Ìý
April 2018 – Academic Paper - Bertone, Maria Paola and Falisse, J-B and Russo, Giuliano and Witter, Sophie (2018) Context matters (but how and why?) A hypothesis-led literature review of performance based financing in fragile and conflict-affected health systems. PLOS ONE, 13 (4). e0195301. ISSN 1932-6203
February 2018 – Academic Paper - Raven, Joanna and Baral, Sushil and Wurie, Haja and Witter, Sophie and Samai, Mohamed and Paudel, Pravin and Subedi, Hom Nath and Martineau, Tim and Elsey, Helen and Theobald, Sally (2018) What adaptation to research is needed following crises: a comparative, qualitative study of the health workforce in Sierra Leone and Nepal. Health Research Policy and Systems, 16 (6). ISSN 1478-4505 Ìý
January 2018 – Academic Paper - Witter, Sophie and Wurie, Haja and Namakula, Justine and Mashange, Wilson and Chirwa, Yotamu and Alonso-Garbayo, Alvaro (2018) Why do people become health workers? Analysis from life histories in 4 post-conflict and post-crisis countries. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 33 (2). pp. 449-459. ISSN 0749-6753 ÌýÌý
January 2018 – Academic Paper - Witter, Sophie and Brikci, Nouria and Harris, Tim and Williams, Richard and Keen, Sarah and Mujica, Ana and Jones, Alex and Murray-Zmijewski, Alex and Bale, Barbara and Leigh, Bailah and Renner, Ade (2018) The free healthcare initiative in Sierra Leone: Evaluating a health system reform, 2010-2015. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 33 (2). pp. 434-448. ISSN 0749-6753 ÌýÌý
December 2017 – Academic Paper -Ìý Witter, Sophie and Namakula, Justine and Wurie, Haja and Chirwa, Yotamu and So, Sovanarith and Vong, Sreytouch and Ros, Bandeth and Buzuzi, Stephen and Theobald, Sally (2017) The gendered health workforce: mixed methods analysis from four fragile and post-conflict contexts. Health Policy and Planning, 32 (supp_5). v52-v62. ISSN 0268-1080 Ìý
November 2017 – Academic Paper -Ìý Witter, Sophie and Wurie, Haja and Chandiwana, Pamela and Namakula, Justine and So, Sovannarith and Alonso-Garbayo, Alvaro and Ssengooba, Freddie and Raven, Joanna (2017) How do health workers experience and cope with shocks? Learning from four fragile and conflict-affected health systems in Uganda, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Cambodia. Health Policy and Planning, 32. (Suppl_3). iii3-iii13. ISSN 0268-1080
October 2017 – Academic Paper -Ìý Ros, Bandeth and Lê, Gillian and McPake, Barbara and Fustukian, Suzanne (2017) The commercialization of traditional medicine in modern Cambodia. Health policy and planning, 33 (1). pp. 9-16. ISSN 1460-2237
July 2017 – Academic Paper -Ìý Martineau, Tim and McPake, Barbara and Theobald, Sally and Raven, Joanna and Ensor, Tim and Fustukian, Suzanne and Ssengooba, Freddie and Chirwa, Yotamu and Vong, Sreytouch and Wurie, Haja and Hooton, Nick and Witter, Sophie (2017) Leaving no one behind: lessons on rebuilding health systems in conflict- and crisis-affected states. BMJ Global Health, 2 (2). e000327. ISSN 2059-7908 ÌýÌý
June 2017 – Academic Paper - Ssengooba, Freddie and Kawooya, Vincent and Namakula, Justine and Fustukian, Suzanne (2017) Application of social network analysis in the assessment of organization infrastructure for service delivery: a three district case study from post-conflict northern Uganda. Health Policy and Planning, 32 (8). pp. 1193-1202. ISSN 0268-1080 ÌýÌý
June 2017 – Academic Paper - Ssengooba, Freddie and Namakula, Justine and Kawooya, Vincent and Fustukian, Suzanne (2017) Sub-national assessment of aid effectiveness: A case study of post-conflict districts in Uganda. Globalization and Health, 13 (1). ISSN 1744-8603 ÌýÌý
January 2017 – Academic Paper - Witter, Sophie and Bertone, Maria Paola and Chirwa, Yotamu and Namakula, Justine and So, Sovannarith and Wurie, Haja R. (2017) Evolution of policies on human resources for health: opportunities and constraints in four post-conflict and post-crisis settings. Conflict and Health, 10 (1). ISSN 1752-1505 Ìý
Several of our ¾«Æ·¶ÌÊÓ team members have been involved in the ReBUILD podcast series - Stories of Resilience – Local Lives and Health Systems.
- Episode 1:Ìý
- Episode 4:Ìý
- Episode 6:
- : health seeking behaviour of migrants and internally displaced people from Myanmar along the Thailand-Myanmar border
- Ìý
For ¾«Æ·¶ÌÊÓ's full partner profile, visit website.
The following ¾«Æ·¶ÌÊÓ staff members contribute to the ReBUILD project: Sophie Witter; Maria Bertone; Karin Diaconu; Mariel Horncastle; and Paul Kadetz.
IGHD Project Enquiries
We welcome enquiries relating to current and prospective research.
See panel at the bottom of the page for all staff involved in this project.
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