Global Health Watch 1 in one file

Holding to account | E7
Box E7.1 Essential national health research and national
health research systems
The core of an essential national health research (ENHR) strategy is to promote
research on country-specific problems that could underpin national
and community decisions on health policy and management. It involves
researchers, decision-makers and community representatives, who jointly
choose the priorities to be addressed. It is aimed at improving the effective
use of existing knowledge and technologies. Country-specific research may
have limited transferability to other countries or situations, but it guides
the wise use of internal resources and strengthens national sovereignty.
It places a country in a much stronger position to judge and, if necessary,
seek adjustments to external development assistance. Furthermore, it gives
each developing country an informed voice in establishing priorities for
research on the global scientific agenda (Commission on Health Research
for Development 1990).
For health research to be more effectively aligned to meeting national
health priorities, a health research system is needed to plan, coordinate,
monitor and manage health research resources and activities.
Health research systems exist to plan, coordinate, monitor and manage
health research resources and activities in a way that promotes effective and
equitable national health development. It is a concept that ‘integrates and
coordinates the objectives, structures, stakeholders, processes, cultures
and outcomes of health research towards the development of equity in
health and in the national health system’ (WHO 2002). The concept has
been delineated in terms of several components of a system including
stewardship; financing; values and ethics; roles and functions; capacity and
resources; and strategies for strengthening health research systems.
• all countries should undertake essential national health research (ENHR)
(Box E7.1);
• international partnerships to address priority health research questions
should be strengthened;
• funding for research focused on the health problems of the South should
be increased and sustained;
• an international mechanism to monitor progress should be established.
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