WHO Health Systems Research Strategy
Summary of 1st Advisory Group Meeting
Boston, Massachusetts, USA - the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR) convened the first consultation with the WHO HSR Strategy Advisory Group co-chaired by Julio Frenk, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health and Sujatha Rao, Former Secretary of Health, Government of India, on 7-8 June, 2011. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the development of a WHO Health Systems Research (HSR) Strategy which will be launched at the Beijing Symposium in November 2012. The meeting was co-facilitated by John-Arne Rottingen, Chair of the AHPSR Board and Carissa Etienne, Assistant Director-General for the Health Systems and Services Cluster of the World Health Organization.
The Advisory Group, comprised of leading experts including researchers and policy-makers, met over two days to discuss the purpose, objectives, themes, and the process through which the WHO Strategy will be developed. Ensuring an inclusive consultative process and contextualizing the strategy around the Millennium Development Goals were among some of the key issues discussed at the meeting.
The development of this WHO Strategy responds to the call to build greater constituency, credibility and capacity for health systems research at the Montreux Symposium in November 2010. The Montreux statement also called for the establishment of norms, practices, and standards for HSR as well as enhancing its use in decision making. The development of this WHO Strategy will bridge the gap between the generation and use of HSR and help facilitate 'global action' around these critical issues.