Day two

Session 1: Regional strategies to improve scores in regional economic communities 

A cross section of the delegates including members of the EDCTP General Assembly and EDCTP Africa Office

Representatives from ECOWAS, EAC, OCEAC and SADC reviewed the NHRS scores in their respective sub-regions and committed to working with WHO-AFRO and EDCTP to develop strategies for improving NHRC scores in their respective spaces.    

From left to right:: Victor C Chalwe (Zambia), Moses Bockarie and Godfrey Biemba (Zambia)

Session 1: Regional strategies to improve scores in regional economic communities 

Session 2: Key highlights from the meeting 

  1. The current NHRS Barometer tool is essential for the establishment of a research culture in countries, including coordination of activities by national research institutions.
  2. RECs and EDCTP Regional Networks of Excellence (NoE) agreed to work together to ensure a NHRS barometer score of above 50% in all member states in their respective regions during the 2020 NHRS surveys
  3. EDCTP committed funding to the WHO-AFRO Africa Health Observatory to build on the current web-platform to generate data for computing the NHRS barometer scores in member states
  4. A roadmap for conducting web-based NHRS surveys in member states in 2020 agreed upon.
  5. Private sector involvement should be explored for strengthening RH4.
  6. Knowledge translation is a challenge for many PSs.  Where knowledge translation platform is lacking, R4H tends to be weak.
  7. The challenge of countries moving from lower income to lower middle-income status in Africa warrants a closer look as a factor that impacts the availability of donor funds for health research. This may partly explain why countries like Angola and Gabon have lower scores.
  8. Clarity is required on the structure and function of the National Health Research Management Forum (NHRMF).
  9. Countries that are performing well have political will, research institutions mandated by parliament and annual budget allocations to the institutions.
  10. Improved communication strategy for health research at country level to engage policy makers and other partners is required.

Session 2: Key highlights from the meeting