WHO Partners Osotimehin on Research for Infectious Diseases of Poverty

As part of government’s effort for strengthening comprehensive health system in Nigeria, the World Health Organization, (WHO) has given a boost to the Federal Ministry of Health with the take off of its Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases in Nigeria.
Speaking during the first annual meeting of the Thematic Reference Group (TRG) on Health Systems and Implementation Research held in Abuja, the WHO Representative for Nigeria, Dr. Peter Eriki, said the success of disease control interventions ultimately depends on the nature and performance of the health system in any given country or setting. Thus, it has become necessary to systemically review research evidence and evaluate its relevance to disease control needs and assess challenges facing the government of developing countries in building their effective health care system. He promised to highlight significant advice, guidance on priority areas and critical gaps and needs for research on infectious diseases of poverty from a health system perspective.
Dr. Eriki stressed that responding to the health needs of the poorest will require a major scale-up of coverage of good-quality primary care, referral to first-level hospital care, and mechanisms to protect poor households from catastrophic health care payments. The TDR, he added, has set up a Thematic Reference Group (TRG) for the country’s health system and implementation as this will address these critical issues over the years to come. The meeting in Abuja, Nigeria is the first meeting for members of the TRG to discuss relevant key issues and agree on how to plan and achieve the objectives expected.
Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, in his response thanked WHO and TDR for the opportunity given to Nigeria to host the Thematic Reference Group, stating that, in order to promote rational decision-making in programmatic and policy matters, health managers and policy makers need evidence-based information that would emanate from health research.
Osotimehin tasked the Thematic Group to consider assisting Nigeria in enhancing her capacity to undertake research as the country would gain a lot from the conduct and application of findings from implementation and impact research in the health sector.
“We need to rapidly increase the number of researchers who would possess the required skill for conducting research in these areas including the capacity to undertake socio-economic analysis of the designs of the delivery of our programmes”, he added.
The Minister promised to assist the researchers facilitate access to the means (technical assistance, grants) for undertaking the research studies. He further called on the Thematic Group to see the country’s health policies and programmes as suitable subjects for implementation and impact research.