Health Systems Cluster

IGHD promotes research that embodies critical thinking and principles of social justice, in order to address the health and development of vulnerable and marginalised populations globally. IGHD’s Health Systems Cluster conducts health systems research with a focus on health inequality, social determinants of health and progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

Many of the Health Systems Cluster’s projects are carried out in fragile and shock-affected settings, looking at fragility and its linkage to the resilience of health systems. Additionally, we are also exploring the interlinkages between mobility and migration, in relation to health systems serving displaced populations. Our work has focused on health financing, human resources for health, community-health system connections, gender and equity, and management of chronic illness, including tuberculosis, non-communicable diseases and mental health.

The Health Systems Cluster’s research builds on strong partnerships at the regional level in the Middle East and Caucasus, South-East Asia, West and Southern Africa and Latin America. We have an interdisciplinary team with expertise in health economics, policy analysis and political economy, health systems modelling, behaviour change, sociology and anthropology, and often work in collaboration with IGHD's Psychological Wellbeing, Integration and Protection (PIP) Cluster.

Our team is engaged with the UK’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), in particular through the Research Unit on Health in Situations of Fragility (RUHF), and with the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) through the Rebuild for Resilience (R4R) project. Other recent and ongoing work has been funded by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Medical Research Council (MRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the National Institutes for Health (NIH).

Sophie Witter

Health Systems Cluster Lead
Tel: 0131 474 0000