A few issues in health research …

1. How can communities help improve national health research strategies for their populations?
Communities are most often involved in health research as ‘data points’ and subjects of research. But their value as groups who can help define, deliver and measure the effectiveness of health research is not often recognized.
A group of civil society organizations came produced a Call to Action (see: http://www.cohred.org/main/Assests/PDF/Bamako_web.pdf ) at the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health that was held in Bamako, Mali in November 2008. The Call for Action helped open a dialogue with ministers and other health research leaders at the Bamako meeting. The dialogue centred on advantages the civil society organizations can accrue to making research more relevant to people’s needs and needs for population health in their countries.
A special document was prepared as input to Bamako Ministerial Forum: A Call for Civil Society Engagement to Achieve Research for Health: Toward a Post-Bamako Action Plan.