Post-Soviet Transformations of Health Systems in the South Caucasus

Sophie Hohmann (1) , Cecile Lefevre (2, 1)

1 CERCEC - Centre d'études des mondes russe, caucasien et centre-européen
2 CERLIS - UMR 8070 - Centre de recherche sur les liens sociaux

This article analyzes post-Soviet changes to the health systems in the three South Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. After a severe economic and social crisis and deindustrialization in the 1990s, divergent trends emerged in the 2000s. Azerbaijan saw a spectacular recovery in growth, fuelled by an oil boom, while the impact of the 2009 global crisis restrained Georgia and Armenia's capacity to allocate budgets to health care. Many similarities can be identified between the three countries, particularly in the 1990s, attributed to a common Soviet past and to the same trends in international aid. Differences and country-specific features increasingly manifested themselves in the 2000s, and resulting from diverging policy choices.

Mots clés: international norms; soviet legacy; reforms; health policies; Southern Caucasus; health systems

Domaines: Démographie; Histoire; Sociologie

Sophie Hohmann, Cecile Lefevre. Post-Soviet Transformations of Health Systems in the South Caucasus. Central Asian Affairs, 2014, 1, pp.48-70. ⟨10.1163/22142290-00101005⟩. ⟨hal-01411353⟩