A good friend of mine has strong reservations about using the term “unpack”, a term that is quite popular in the health policy and systems discourse. The term lends a notion of flexibility to concepts and ideas that have some currency but whose actual definition or interpretation remain somewhat unclear. I’ve given some thought to my frien...

When there’s a problem in a system that is resilient, the problem should not only be an indication of what is amiss; but also of the inherent and latent resources available for remedy. Resilience denotes a system’s capacity and elasticity to absorb, appropriately respond to, and rebuild from shock – features that are tested and proven in cri...

(1st part of two-part communication – you find the second part here )   Despite widespread global awareness of the ongoing Ebola crisis in West Africa, humanitarian and relief organizations on the ground say the current response is inadequate to effectively contain the epidemic, even if some progress is noticeable. The debate on the internation...

(2nd part of two-part communication – you find the first part here )   Let’s now try to come up with an early analysis of the overall African response till now, after our – admittedly – ‘quick & dirty’ mapping effort (see the first part of this communication). A very preliminary analysis, obviously, as the Ebola outbreak is far from ove...