A Health Sector Strategy for the Europe and Central Asia Region (Health, Nutrition, and Population Series)

The health systems inherited by transition countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) are changing in response to fundamental and unprecedented challenges. Although the desired shape of future health systems in many ECA countries is discernible, the process for getting there must be invented along the way. 'A Health Sector Strategy for the Europe and Central Asia Region' reviews substantive issues facing health policymakers in ECA. It summarizes the World Bank's experience so far in this arena and the lessons it suggests. Furthermore, it outlines both an external strategy by which the Bank's ECA health staff could assist countries to restructure their health systems and an internal strategy by which the staff could organize their own activities to achieve this result. The publication offers those outside the Bank a basis for professional dialogue to foster constructive change in the Bank's approaches.