Council on Health Research for Development Foro de investigación en Salud de Argentina Fijación de prioridades de investigación sanitaria: de la agenda a la acción October 8, 2007 Sylvia de Haan & Gabriela Montorzi

Council on Health Research for Development Recommendations: 1.ENHR 2.Global Funding 3.Partnerships 4.Global Platform

Council on Health Research for Development Seven elements of ENHR: –i) Advocacy, ii) Coordination, iii) Networking, iv) Capacity strengthening, v) Financing, vi) Evaluation –vii) Priority setting: ‘The goal is to develop mechanisms and criteria for identifying priorities for health research that would meet the broad objective of ENHR – to achieve equity in health and development’

Council on Health Research for Development Informed by Bangkok conference Definition: The people and institutions that govern, manage, demand, generate, communicate or use research evidence to promote, restore, improve, or maintain the state of health and development of the population Functions: 1) Governance 2) Financing 3) Capacity Building 4) Knowledge generation, translation & utilisation National Health Research System

Council on Health Research for Development Relationship between health system and health research system (1) Source: Adapted from Pang T et al. Knowledge for better health—a conceptual framework and foundation for health research systems. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2003, 81:815–830.

Council on Health Research for Development Why Health Research Priorities ? (1) ‘Making choices’ for the achievement of short or long term goals - disease/ condition specific goals; reducing health inequities - targeting existing resources (financial, human, other) Researchers know where to focus - can ‘align’ Funding and donor agencies know where to focus Accountability to the public & to public goals - measure progress against objectives - can help obtain political commitment Leveraging more resources - e.g. inter-sectoral research (link to S&T, education) – financial and human resources

Council on Health Research for Development Why Health Research Priorities ? (2) If we don’t set priorities … we run the risk of… –Going for the most publicized problems e.g. by the press, ‘global priorities’, or vocal advocates –Doing ‘whatever comes first’ –Researching the ‘easiest’ … external funding –Focusing only on ‘diseases and conditions’ and not on determinants, system aspects, human resources, equity-promoting interventions, etc

Council on Health Research for Development Health Research Priority Setting Principles Is not easy –need to make many and hard choices –there are many approaches, methods, tools all with underlying values and assumptions –thus there is not one correct way Is not ‘once-off’ –view it as a ‘process’ rather than a ‘method’ –over time – needs to be institutionalised Has to link to action … –if it does not change practice, why bother ?

Council on Health Research for Development Health Research Priority Setting COHRED approach

Council on Health Research for Development Priority Setting in Latin America Chile Argentina Bolivia Brazil Panama Costa Rica El Salvador Mexico Peru

Council on Health Research for Development Experiences from the region – From priorities to action Brazil: Research calls for proposals; Inter-sectoral partnerships (S&T funding to agenda); decentralised funding Costa Rica:Establishment fund to support priority research; HR HR plan; Integrate nat priorities in institutional agendas Mexico: Dissemination agenda; Sectorial Fund for Health & Social Security Research linked to agenda

Council on Health Research for Development From priorities to action in Argentina Workshop Oct 7: Alignment of national funding to priorities Involvement civil society in priority setting Policy makers buy in to agenda Key messages: -Experience with priority setting -Critical mass of researchers -Agendas available Now need to create the health research policy framework to take forward the implementation of agenda, make it sustainable and develop other strategies to ensure progress.

Council on Health Research for Development A COHRED service

Council on Health Research for Development A COHRED service Key policies. Key institutions. Resources. Country background