Research capacity for sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Abstract

Research is important for improving health outcomes and is a critical element of a functioning health system. Without locally generated data and analysis, well-intentioned programmes do not often respond to realities where they are implemented. (1) Hence strengthening research capacity in low-and middle-income countries is one of most powerful, cost-effective and sustainable measures of advancing health, health care and development. (2) The world health report 2013: research for universal health coverage referred to research capacity as the abilities of individuals, institutions and networks, nationally and internationally, to undertake and disseminate research findings of highest quality. (3) The report provides examples of efforts that build research capacity by national and international agencies focusing on particular element of capacity building. However, best results in capacity building are obtained when there are interactions between individuals, institutions and networks to support research. For example, graduate and postgraduate training are more likely to be effective when host institutions are also strong. (3) Since 1990 number of initiatives on strengthening research capacity in low- and middle-income countries has increased to over 300. (4) However, in many countries there is still insufficient capacity to engage in research that will influence evidence-based policies and programming at country level. (5) Lack of funding, expertise in preparing manuscripts for publication (6) and protected time for research pursuits, as well as infrastructure of institutions, are key constraints faced by researchers. (7) Traditionally, investments and efforts to strengthen research capacity in these countries have mostly been focused on individual research training such as masters, doctorate and fellowship programmes. (8) Lately Wellcome Trust African Institutions Initiative (9) has emphasized institutional development as an important component of strengthening capacity. Although there is an increase in initiatives to strengthen health research capacity, such initiatives are scarce in field of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Mapping 303 global initiatives--which aims to strengthen health research in low-and middle-income countries--showed that 35% of initiatives focused on infectious disease, while only 3% of initiatives specifically focused on reproductive, maternal and child health. (4) To improve reproductive health by supporting national and/or regional research, human reproduction programme (HRP) was formed in 1972 as United Nations Development Programme/ United Nations Population Fund/United Nations Childrens Fund/World Health Organization (WHO)/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction. The programme is main instrument within United Nations system for research in human reproduction and has a global mandate to lead research and conduct research capacity strengthening in field of sexual and reproductive health and rights. (10,11) The programme consists of an alliance comprising: (i) institutions receiving support from HRP under its research capacity strengthening schemes; (ii) institutions and individuals who have engaged strongly with HRP on various multi-country thematic research projects; (iii) official WHO collaborating centres working with WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research; and (iv) WHO Regional and Country Offices. (10) Sexual and reproductive health research in low- and middle-income countries faces several key challenges in achieving high-quality research and publications. Often, research is underfunded, emerging institutions lack visibility and networking opportunities, there are few training opportunities for individuals and grant termination leads to inability to conduct or continue independent research. …