Health System Research - East and Southern African

HSR aims to bridge the gap between research efforts and research needs through a participatory, interdisciplinary approach that involves health managers as well as health care providers and users in the process of problem identification and analysis. HSR's strategic focus is on contributing to the generation of evidence-based information for use by policymakers and health managers at all levels of the health system.

Specific activities include:

• Advocacy to create awareness and consensus-building on the value and uses of HSR through national consultative meetings involving stakeholders in health research,policies, and programmes.
• Capacity building through HSR training, training of trainers, and the integration of research in selected curricula; development of HSR training materials. The training modules were developed by the Joint HSR Project in close cooperation with researchers from the region and, in a later stage, with the Public Health Institute of Kuala Lumpur.
• Technical and financial support to conduct research and promote the use of results.
• Strengthening of HSR institutions through the establishment of HSR units and appointment of HSR Focal Points (HSR/FPs); sharing experiences and joint planning; Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC).
• Networking through inter-country meetings, publications, and linkages with institutional andinternational agencies and other donors.

Specifically, to detail the latter approach, networking is a major instrument in promoting HSR; to that end, many planning, research, and dissemination activities are carried out on an inter-country basis. The first inter-country meeting among the countries involved identifying 3 main areas for concentrated effort in their action plans:

• Strengthening of local structures to promote HSR
• Strengthening of local capabilities to conduct HSR
• Enhancing internal and inter-country communication with respect to HSR

Health.

The concept of HSR has been developed particularly to address the problem of poor use of research results. "The long term objective of this project is to promote health in the countries of the Eastern and Southern African region through improved performance of the health care system, based on the principles of equity, participation and quality, through integration of health systems research in the decision and policy making process at all levels."