HRP Alliance for Research Capacity Strengthening

The HRP Alliance for Research Capacity Strengthening (RCS) is an initiative that brings together institutions conducting research in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in collaboration with WHO regional and country offices. An integral component of the Human Reproduction Programme (HRP), the HRP Alliance fulfils a mandate of supporting research capacity strengthening in low- and lower-middle income countries.

The HRP Alliance encompasses a dynamic network structure, bringing together HRP and WHO regional and country offices with RCS grant recipients, collaborating centres and HRP research partners, within a joint frame of engagement in research capacity strengthening in SRHR.

Our vision: The HRP Alliance aims to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) globally by supporting research capacity.

Our goal: To strengthen SRHR research capacity in an alliance of institutions and stakeholders in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Our strategy: By linking RCS with HRP research and knowledge transfer, the HRP Alliance capitalizes and reinforces existing collaborations. It provides support for institutions to position themselves in the global SRHR research and knowledge transfer arena. This is provided through long term institutional grants to our HRP Alliance hubs, who support research capacity strengthening to institutions in their respective regions. The HRP Alliance also supports courses and occasional special research initiatives, all within the frame of SRHR implementation research.

Ndema Habib, statistician and responsible officer for the HRP Statistics Portal for WHO's Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health including HRP, describes the full-cycle of the HRP research process.