UCL Centre for Global Health Systems and Policy

PI: Kabir Sheikh, Co-PI: Neha Batura | Funder: Gates Foundation | Amount: $2,000,000 | Timeline: 2024–2028

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are urbanising rapidly, yet Primary Health Care (PHC) systems remain designed around rural populations. This collaboration with the Government of India, the Public Health Foundation of India, and IIT Kanpur advances learning on Urban PHC systems. The programme strengthens PHC in three Indian cities through a Learning Health Systems approach, with research questions co-produced with city policymakers and communities. It also aims to catalyse global learning on Urban PHC, engaging with international agencies, funders, and policymakers to shape future guidelines and norms. 

PI: Yuxi Zhang | Funder: Research England ISP Fund | Amount: £60,000 | Timeline: 2024–2025

In collaboration with Vietnam’s Health Strategy and Policy Institute, this project examined how health-related misinformation and disinformation (HRMD) influence health service use, with particular attention to noncommunicable disease services. The study assessed the effectiveness and inclusiveness of existing policies and communication programmes in addressing HRMD and identified critical gaps. Based on these findings, the project developed recommendations to strengthen policy responses and improve health communication strategies. By generating new evidence on the impact of HRMD, the project contributed to building more resilient, evidence-informed health systems in Vietnam and provided insights relevant for other low- and middle-income settings. 

Co-PIs: Prateek Raj, Pratap Kumar | Funder: AIIMS–IITD–UCL MedTech grant | Amount: £20,000 | Timeline: 2025–2027

This project aims to digitise paper-based health records from health outreach settings using AIU (Accessible, Inclusive, Universal) tools. Building on the proven PaperEMR platform, AIU will integrate low-cost and less-resource intensive technologies to enable real-time, low-effort, multilingual digitisation of health records. Led by an interdisciplinary team at AIIMS, IIT Delhi, and UCL, the project leverages expertise in public dental health, algorithmic and digital infrastructure innovation, and participatory design to deliver a scalable, TRL-9 solution. AIU will enable integration of health data to India’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), support public health monitoring, and enable AI-assisted healthcare—for underserved populations especially in dental and oral health as part of India’s National Oral Health Programme (NOHP) - offering a replicable model for global health systems that are reliant on paper. 

PI: Kabir Sheikh | Funder: NIHR | Amount: £1.0 million | Timeline: 2025–2028

This project co-produces a practice model of health system responsiveness with Adivasi (indigenous) communities in Karnataka and Kerala states in India. It applies Indigenous Standpoint Theory and participatory action research to develop culturally safe health care models, working closely with community organisations and local health systems. 

PI: Yuxi Zhang | Funder: UCL Global Strategic Partner Funds | Amount: £20,000 | Timeline: 2025–2026

People-centred integrated care is widely recognised by the global health community as a cornerstone of health system strengthening. The recently published Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to integrated care reform. Cross-country policy learning is important, but integrated care reform means very different things in different countries. There is an urgent need for a global review of relevant policies and practices to assess how different variants of integrated care reforms develop and perform. This project will make a unique contribution by scoping the highly heterogeneous integrated care reforms worldwide, highlighting their rationale, scale, policy instruments, implementation, and evaluation strategies—drawing on the expertise of a new international research network.

Rooted in the theme of transformation, these conversations bring together global experts, health leaders and frontline practitioners in exploring how to innovate and manage change amidst these complex realities. 

The conversations include a mix of in-person, hybrid and online events, which are publicly broadcast, recorded, and archived.

Transforming Health Systems: Conversations that Matter

The Research Handbook on Health Systems in the Global South is a multi-collaborator project to bring together an edited volume to fill a critical gap in health systems scholarship. It will bring together contributions delineating contemporary health systems challenges in a comprehensive typology, and elaborating approaches and methods best suited to studying these challenges.

The handbook will consist of over 40 chapters addressing longstanding debates as well as emerging challenges facing health systems today, including AI, external assistance and post-aid realities, environmental change and conflict, commercial influences, debates on health products, digital health governance, and more. Combining case studies, thematic reviews, and analytical commentaries, and offering both a comprehensive synthesis of empirical evidence and theory development, it will serve as a resource for scholars of health systems and related subjects and disciplines.

Over 100 authors from across the globe are contributing to this handbook, representing diverse geographic, epistemological, and professional backgrounds. The handbook will be published by Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd and is expected to be published in 2027.

Editorial Team

• Prof. Kabir Sheikh (UCL GBSH)
• Dr Yuxi Zhang (UCL GBSH)
• Dr Joe Collins (UCL GBSH)
• Prof. Irene Agyepong (Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons)

The Collaborative Learning Network (CLN) on Health Systems Financing and Fiscal Sovereignty in LMICs is a peer-led platform convened through the Centre for Global Health Systems and Policy at UCL Global Business School for Health.

The CLN brings together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to engage with questions at the intersection of health financing, political economy, and system reform, particularly in the context of shifting aid landscapes and growing fiscal constraints. 

The CLN is designed as a space for critical dialogue, practice-oriented exchange, and cross-country learning. Its activities include policy dialogues, collaborative outputs, and ongoing member-led discussions. The Network also maintains a LinkedIn group as a central platform for information exchange and continued engagement among members. 

The Network was formally launched in February 2026 and is currently focused on convening its first dialogue in the Transforming Health Systems (THS) series.

Team

• Catherine Etseoghena Khanoba – Co-Convener (Impact Fellow, Health Systems & Policy, UCL GBSH)
• Hintsa Gebreagziabhear Gebremariam – Co-Convener (Impact Fellow, Health Systems & Policy, UCL GBSH)
• Dr Joe Collins (UCL GBSH)
• Dr Chiara Berardi (UCL GBSH) 

Advisory Group

• Prof Kabir Sheikh (UCL, GBSH)
• Prof Rochelle Burgess (UCL, IGH)
• Prof Thomas O’Connell (NYU; former WHO/UNICEF)
• Dr Charles Birungi (UNAIDS)
• Prof Justice Nonvignon (University of Ghana)
• Prof Juliet Nabyonga-Orem (WHO / North-West University)
• Dr Zubin Shroff (Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research)
• Mr Felix Obi (Results for Development)
• Dr Alex Hakuzimana (Health financing expert)