Priority setting for health research: toward a management process for low and middle income countries (Working Paper 1)

ABSTRACT

This Working Paper documents the interactions of a ‘think tank’ consultation, initiated by COHRED, bringing together health research managers from Brazil, South Africa, The Netherlands, The Philippines, the private sector, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Global Forum for Health Research and COHRED. Its purpose was to better understand the issues countries face and their needs in moving priority setting forward as well as seeking advice from professionals on how COHRED can support them in managing a process of setting and measuring progress in health research priorities. Rather than having priorities ‘reviewed’ and ‘set’ through a workshop or national activity that produces a plan reflecting the situation at one point in time, the discussion in this think tank examined what process is needed so that national health research priorities are managed in a dynamic way, and are measured, updated and can evolve with the reality of the national, operational and political context. (...)