Context and rationale
10 WHO’s roles and responsibilities in research were approved by the sixty-third World Health Assembly in May 2010. They are set out in document A63/22 - the WHO strategy on research for health.
20 This strategy sets out how to strengthen WHO’s involvement in research for health and the consequent role of research within WHO. It recognizes that research is central to progress in global health and identifies ways in which the Secretariat can work with Member States and partners to harness science, technology and broader knowledge in order to produce research evidence and tools for improving health outcomes.
Definitions
30 Research is defined here as the development of knowledge with the aim of understanding health challenges and mounting an improved response to them.
40 The term "research for health" reflects the fact that improving health outcomes requires the involvement of many sectors and disciplines. Research of this type seeks to perform the functions of understanding the impact on health of policies, programmes, processes, actions or events originating in any sector and of assisting in developing interventions that will help prevent or mitigate that impact.
50 Research for health covers the full spectrum of research, which spans the following five generic areas of activity:
- measuring the magnitude and distribution of the health problem;
- understanding the diverse causes or the determinants of the problem, whether they are due to biological, behavioural, social or environmental factors;
- developing solutions or interventions that will help to prevent or mitigate the problem;
- implementing or delivering solutions through policies and programmes; and
- evaluating the impact of these solutions on the level and distribution of the problem.
Vision
60 The vision for the strategy is that decisions and actions to improve health and enhance health equity are grounded in evidence from research.
Mission
70 The mission of the strategy is for the Secretariat, Member States and partners to work together to harness science, technology and broader knowledge in order to produce research-based evidence and tools for improving health.
Principles
80 The WHO strategy on research for health is grounded in three principles that will guide achievement of the goals and the realization of the vision:
- Quality. WHO commits itself to high-quality research that is ethical, expertly reviewed, efficient, effective, accessible to all, and carefully monitored and evaluated.
- Impact. WHO gives priority to research and innovation that has the greatest potential to improve global health security, accelerate health-related development, redress health inequities and help to attain the Millennium Development Goals.
- Inclusiveness. The Secretariat undertakes to work in partnership with Member States and stakeholders, to take a multisectoral approach to research for health, and to support and promote the participation of communities and civil society in the research process.
Goals
90 Five interrelated goals have been defined in order to enable WHO to realize the strategy’s vision of the application of research-based evidence to inform decisions and actions in support of health and health equity:
- The Organization goal involves the strengthening of the research culture across WHO;
- The priorities goal concerns the reinforcement of research that responds to priority health needs;
- The capacity goal relates to the provision of support to the strengthening of national health research systems;
- The standards goal concerns the promotion of good practice in research, drawing on WHO’s core function of setting norms and standards; and
- The translation goal involves the strengthening of links between the policy, practice and products of research.
