Resilience can be described as a system's ability to cope with pressure and change while continuing to develop. Pandemics, wars, climate change and geopolitical threats highlight how the crises of our time are becoming increasingly complex and intertwined. In the Nordic region, the resilience of welfare is crucial – as experience from the Covid-19 pandemic shows. Welfare is important both for good and equal health and for functioning societies in general. At the same time, today's challenges in healthcare are considerable.
The healthcare systems in the Nordic countries are based on similar principles of universal welfare, but differ in their organisation and governance. These differences affect how countries respond to crises. At the same time, they all face the same fundamental challenges – not least an ageing population, skills shortages and difficulties in coordinating care between different levels and actors.
Four essays written by researchers
How can we strengthen our crisis preparedness and increase the Nordic welfare resilience? When does a crisis begin and who decides that? In the publication Welfare resilience during crises in the Nordic region, gender perspectives on challenges and ways forward in healthcare, researchers in global public health, economic history, demography, sociology and social work contribute reflections and problematisations in four essays. Based on their research findings, they open up new perspectives, questions and possible solutions for future crises.
- A two-tier healthcare system reduces resilience.
John Lapidus, a researcher in economic history at the University of Gothenburg, analyses the emergence of private health insurance, which creates a parallel system alongside public healthcare. - Strengthened resources and more collaboration needed in care systems for older adults.
Ann Liljas and Bo Burström, researchers in global public health at the Karolinska Institute, point to the shortcomings that the pandemic exposed in the healthcare and care systems for older adults. - Time and relationships are crucial resources.
Paula Mulinari, a researcher in social work at Malmö University, highlights the stories of healthcare workers and describes how women's time and labour today form the basis of a permanent care crisis. - Outdated assumptions underpinning total defence human resource planning
Ann-Zofie Duvander and Minna Lundgren are both researchers in Sociology at Mid Sweden University. They highlight that planning for increased preparedness and war does not take sufficient account of today's labour market and family structures.
Bringing together the researchers' texts is an attempt to frame the issue of resilience in welfare in a new way, to stimulate discussion between fields and perspectives that rarely meet.
A sector under pressure
Several of the essays emphasise that healthcare is already under severe pressure today. A fragmented and partially privatised sector faces significant challenges even in everyday life, which are exacerbated in a crisis and raise the question of when a crisis begins. When resources are insufficient and conditions are unequal, the resilience of the system becomes fragile.
Overall, the publication shows that the resilience of welfare is not just a matter of resources and organisation. It is also based on social justice, equality and sustainable conditions for both care recipients and care providers. In order to cope with future crises, the Nordic countries therefore need not only to strengthen the capacity of their systems, but also to address the structural inequalities that make healthcare vulnerable.
Support for decision-makers
The publication highlights different levels, areas and perspectives that may be needed in analyses, and concludes with a number of key messages from participating researchers. In this way, it can serve as a support for decision-makers responsible for developing welfare policy in the Nordic region.
Welfare resilience during crises in the Nordic region, gender perspectives on challenges and ways forward in healthcare, has been produced by NIKK – Nordic Information on Gender, a collaborative body under the Nordic Council of Ministers, located at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at the University of Gothenburg. The publication is a part of the Secretariat’s focus area An equal Nordic region.
