Are international health research programmes doing enough to develop research systems and skills in low and middle income countries?
Responsible Vertical Programming: How global health research can deliver essential research, achieve impact and build national systems

Usselmuiden, Carel and Kennedy, Andrew and de Haan, Sylvia and Berger, Martine and Devlin, Michael and Lo Iacono, Sandrine (2007) Are international health research programmes doing enough to develop research systems and skills in low and middle income countries?
Responsible Vertical Programming: How global health research can deliver essential research, achieve impact and build national systems.:1-27.

Abstract

Research plays a crucial role in developing solutions to the health problems suffered by the populations of low and middle income countries. Most health research for and in low and middle income countries is funded from external sources. And most of this externally funded research takes the form of ‘vertical’ – condition – specific – programmes. As a result…
• The health research agenda in poor countries is mostly determined
from the outside, not based on national health research priorities,
and concerns only those conditions for which international funding is
available – largely HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.
• Externally funded research is not primarily concerned with leaving
behind sustainable national research and research governance
capacity – most capacity that is built focuses only on those
competencies needed for individual research projects.
• An important opportunity for sustainable socio-economic
development is missed, if health research does not become a driver for
development in low income countries, where external investments in
health research constitute a large part of total investments in science
and technology.
• Research programmes rarely make provision to translate research
findings into action – leaving this to under-funded, fragile health
systems.