A survey of essential national health research in nine developing countries

A survey of Essential National Health Research (ENHR) was conducted between December 1997 and November 1998 in nine developing countries. A total of 27 respondents from seven South East Asian and two Caribbean countries completed questionnaires. Respondents included 14 men and 13 women with a median age of 48 years (range 25-69 years); 15 were researchers, seven were health providers, three policy makers and one a community representative (one no response). ENHR was formally adopted in five countries mainly through public policy statements. Seven countries had a mechanism in place for promotion of ENHR and national meetings were held in five countries in the year prior to the survey. A special activity was conducted in order to define health research priorities in eight countries and a list of these priorities was available in seven countries. The level of ENHR activity was ranked as low or moderate in most countries except India and Malaysia which were rated as moderate to high. Three countries reported that the process resulted in new or additional funds being made available for research, while India reported available funds being reallocated to meet the priorities defined. The respondents of six countries said that ENHR networking had led to tangible results, including improved collaboration among researchers and research institutions and the sharing of resources among different organizations (five countries). The ENHR process had resulted in research findings being used to formulate or change health policy in five countries. Most countries had not produced any new research protocols through the ENHR process. However, there were 250 new research protocols in India and 68 in Pakistan, of which 20 and between 25 and 35, respectively, were funded and 15 peer reviewed articles had been published from India. This survey does suggest that the ENHR process may be promoting health research on priority health problems and the use of results to formulate policy in selected countries. However, it is too early to assess the contribution of ENHR to health and development and a variety of different studies would be needed to conduct this assessment.