Centre for Health to map research institutes

The Centre for Health and Social Services (CHeSS) has been commissioned by the Department of International Development of the UK (DfID) to map out the capacity of health research institutes in the country.

The purpose of the exercise is to understand the production, advocacy and use of health research for policy and programs in Ghana.

It also will examine the current research capacity of institutions as well as future projections on capacity and research development as well as funding arrangement and sustainability issues.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Dr Sam Adjei, the Executive Director of CHeSS, explained that research mapping was one way of understanding the research landscape in the health sector.

He said even though it was generally accepted that there were relatively strong research structures in place within the health research sector in Ghana, relatively few studies have been done to document the research landscape.

“Identify the key institutions that carry out health research, what the major research priorities are and what research is currently being conducted in the country as well as their funding and sustainability,” he said.

As Ghana transits from a low to a middle income country, it will become increasingly important for research information to document the effect of the transition on the health of the people.

“The role of research in supporting these processes in relation to informing policy direction is essential and so it the growing need for a sustainable research sector within the health sector,” he said.

He said the exercise would build on existing research and provide an insight into the current sustainability of research institutions and provide some comparisons of state of Ghanaian health research similar with those in the middle income countries.

The mapping studies, Dr Adjei, said would be examining institutions such as the university departments, government health institutions, the private sector, consultants, NGOs and development partner institutions who have been conducting health research in the country.

The exercise will be completed in six months and the report would be submitted to the Ministry of Health and partners.