Developing countries should step up health research

Accra, June 21, GNA - Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Health, on Wednesday said developing countries needed a faster and effective way to generate and share knowledge and translate it into effective and affordable interventions to make health care accessible. He said the relationship between health research and development had been clearly demonstrated and there was the need for developing countries to renew with vigour and improve the role and contribution of health research within the global and national development agenda. Major Quashigah made the statement when he closed a three-day meeting of Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) in Accra.

Health researchers and po licy experts attended the meeting, the first to be organised in Africa and they discussed global health research needs and priorities; developed improved tools for the control of tropical diseases and the strengthening of research in endemic countries.

It was co-hosted by the Health Ministries of Ghana and Nigeria with sponsorship from UNICEF, UNDP, WHO and the World Bank. Maj Quashigah noted that developed countries had advanced on the basis of constant improvement and refinement through research into traditional ecological knowledge but the traditional knowledge in Africa had remained unexplored and unrefined.

"I believe this situation presents a window of opportunity for the global community to reap the best of both worlds utilising the technological advancement of the Western World to improve and refine our traditional knowledge for the benefit of all."

A press release issued after the meeting announced Ghana's nomination to be a member of the Joint Co-ordinating Board (JCB) of Global Health Research to serve a three-year term starting from January 2007.