This briefing highlights key insights from a recent ODI event, 'Towards universal health systems: leaving no one behind’, which provided an opportunity for a wide-ranging discussion on how Covid-19 is affecting healthcare systems worldwide, and the potential it offers for building better health systems.

Combing research on how universal health systems have developed, it is organised under three themes: (1) how Covid-19 is exposing the fragility of health systems; (2) the potential the crisis offers for expanding universal health coverage (UHC); and (3) how best to capitalise upon this potential.

Report by the Overseas Development Institute