Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
-
Objective: To describe governance and stewardship of research in health research institutions in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region. Design: A structured questionnaire was used to solicit information on governance and stewardship from health research institutions. Setting: Forty-two Member States of the WHO African Region. ⋯ However, most respondent institutions did not have written policies or guidelines, either for the scientific review of proposals (70%) or regarding conflict of interest on scientific review committees (80%). Conclusions: Some health research institutions demonstrate good practice in terms of the establishment of structures and processes for governance and stewardship, many others do not. There is a need for the strengthening of the stewardship capacity of research institutions in the Region.
-
To describe and analyse research output from surveyed national health research institutions in Africa. ⋯ The research output of health research institutions in the Region is significant, but more effort is needed to strengthen research capacity, including human and financial resources.
-
To describe the mechanisms and systems of knowledge acquisition, creation, diffusion, application and improvement of knowledge in two layers of the health system: health policy formulation and the provision of clinical services. ⋯ As systematic reviews are rarely utilised as a source of evidence in policy development and few mechanisms exist to assess the performance of the policies, there are significant opportunities for improving policy development.