In their transition to market economy – and in response to the constraints of being over-centralized and needing to be more responsive to users’ real needs – all Central Asian Republics embarked on health sector reform in the early 1990s. Most have put in place a process, supported by studies and needs assessments that has led to creation of policies, with the goal of building effective health services.

With this foundation in place, the real work starts. Moving from policy to practice is proving to be a huge challenge; It is hampered primarily by lack of a critical mass of professionals that can create, manage and interpret new kinds of medical information in new ways, to make informed decisions.

The Tajikistan Health Sector Policy: “Conception of Health Care Reform in the Republic of Tajikistan” ^[1], with its 9 priorities, is a good example of a national priority setting exercise.

What’s needed, say a number of assessments and studies, is a new generation of ’knowledge workers’ in the ranks of today’s health care professions. A number of national and donor funded activities in Central Asia focus on developing a critical mass of skilled health professionals that can produce and use such information. The USAID-funded Zdrav Plus (Health Plus) works across the region. The Sino project, a comprehensive health sector project supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) , and implemented by the Swiss Tropical Institute, has a significant health reform component in Tajikistan. SDC supports a other health sector reform initiatives across Central Asia, such as the Kyrgyzstan project that is managed by the Red Cross.

The first step in building these skills among the young generation of health researchers is to raise their awareness of the need for information and evidence, as the basis for quality service. A broad range of skills need to be developed, these include building skills for:

• Generating high quality research that is relevant to their
country’s specific needs.
• Effectively managing and using research to inform health
sector reform.
• Making the link between research and policy.

Information-savvy professionals are needed at all levels of the healthcare chain – from village to university, institutions and government – from healthcare providers, health policy makers and the research and academic communities.