A survey of Essential National Health Research in nine developing countries

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the Essential National Research (ENHR) process since its introduction in nine developing countries. DESIGN AND METHODS: A survey of ENHR was conducted between December 1997 and November 1998 in nine developing countries. A total of 27 respondents from 7 South East Asian and 2 Caribbean countries completed questionaires. Respondents included 14 men and 13 women with a median age of 48 years (ranged 25-69 years); 15 were researchers, 6 were health providers, 3 policy makers and 1 a community representative (1 no response). RESULTS: ENHR was formally adopted in 5 countries mainly through public policy statements. Seven countries has a mechanism in place of promotion of ENHR and national meetings were held in 5 countries in the year prior to the survey. A special activity was conducted in order to define health research priorities in 8 countries and a list of these priorities was available in 7 countries. The level of ENHR activity was ranked as low or moderate in most countries except India and Malaysia which were rated as moderate to high. Three countries reported that the process resulted in new or additional funds being made available for research while India reported available funds being reallocated to meet the priorities defined. The respondents of 6 countries said that ENHR networking had led to tangible results including improved collaboration among researchers and research institutions and the sharing of resources among different organisation (5 countries). The ENHR process had resulted in research findings being used to formulate or change health policy in 5 countries. Most countries had not produced any new research protocols through the ENHR process. However, there were 250 new research protocols in India and 68 in Pakistan, of which 20 and between 25 and 35, respectively, were funded, and 15 peer reviewed articles published from India. CONCLUSION: This survey does suggest that the ENHR process may be promoting health research on priority health problems and the use of results to formulate policy in selected countries. However, it is too early to assess the contribution of ENHR to health and development and a variety of different studies would be needed to conduct this assessment.(AU)