The Importance of Community Social Capital in Building Sustainable and Resilient Health Systems

Abstract

Community resilience has been recognised and promoted as a vision and strategy for strengthening health systems in the post-COVID-19 era. The paper sets out the importance of health promotion and building social capital to achieve this goal; it briefly describes the concepts of community ownership, collective efficacy, community capacity and community competence as key categories for managing this process. We conclude with a call for reflection on the need for a clear understanding of these elements for a renewed vision of sustainable and resilient health systems.