The Ghanaian-Dutch Collaboration for Health Research and Development is a partnership between Ghanaian and Dutch academic, research, and government and non-governmental health service agencies that are committed to undertake and promote collaborative, participatory, interdisciplinary, demand-driven and relevant health research. The aim is the partnership is to provide appropriate relevant information to help the Health Sector achieve its goal of better health and health care and development for the people of Ghana.
The Netherlands Ministry for Development Cooperation (DGIS) is funding the programme, with the Health Research Unit of the Ghana Health Service as the executive secretariat. A Joint Ghanaian-Dutch Programme Committee (JPC) has been formed to be the programme's policy and decision-making body. A Dutch based Support and Liaison Office (SLO) to facilitate Dutch involvement, in terms of information and researchers, in the activities in Ghana. In August 2001 the Ghanaian Dutch programme on Health Research for Development started. First contacts between the Health Research Unit in Ghana and the RAWOO in the Netherlands were made in the April of 1996. On both sides there was interest in an innovative research programme in which the key words would be 'Ownership' and 'Partnership'.
There has to be ownership on the Ghanaian side, because this programme is meant to produce knowledge to contribute to the solution of the specific health and development problems in Ghana. Partnership is important because local problems have global dimensions that require a joint responsibility for the partners from both countries to work on.
On 7 and 8 August 2001 the Joint. Programme Committee (JPC) met to discuss the take off of the research programme. It decided on the details of a call for proposals for commissioned research as well as investigator-led research. Also the capacity building as an integrated part of the Ghanaian Dutch programme Before August 1.
JPC stood for Joint Planning Committee instead of Joint Programme Committee. After all, research is about collecting data, analyzing them and trying to use them. The earlier one starts to collect the missing information, the sooner it can be used. However, the link from research to using research is not so self-evident. To make an efficient use of scarce research resources in developing countries, an infrastructure is needed in order to ask the right research questions and to set priorities.
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A genuine Ghanaian research agenda had to be set and mechanisms in this process had to be strengthened or developed. In addition, some of the partners had to be convinced of the usefulness of this approach. For some it implied a paradigmatic shift in which the emphasis went from academic quality to societal relevance. In the Ghanaian Dutch Research programme research has to be scientific, but more importantly relevant to Ghanaian societal needs. It took time to formulate the plans that all partners involved were happy with.
A lot of work has been done in the pre-implementation stage that makes it possible to start the programme with confidence. We have developed a good resource centre with an inventory of existing publications. A modest beginning was made with development of a digital information system for Ghanaian researchers. Above all a process of consultations and workshops with all stakeholders in Ghana (communities, health-care providers, policymakers at different levels and researchers) resulted in a research that was acceptable to all.
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The time to look back at the problems that have to be overcome is over. The future of Health Research for Development in Ghana Knocks on the door and it is good that Ghanaians and Dutch Researchers join Hands to develop the needed information to improve health in Ghana. With the research agenda in hand the JPC has decided to publish a call for proposal for two commissioned researchers on health financing and community attitudes and communication with regards to HIV/AIDS. Letters of intent (LOI) are therefore being invited from interested groups to address these issues. Any investigator can submit a letter of intent to conduct research on any topic that fits the research agenda.
To foster the spirit of partnership, Ghanaian and Dutch researchers can jointly submit LOI. In addition, the letters of intent that come from Ghanaian researchers could be made available to Dutch researchers and based on their interest, the secretariat could link the two groups up. the JPC hopes to have received the letters of intent by the first week of October and will ask independent reviewers to decide on the proposals in December. In January 2002 contracts between the secretariat of the programme and researchers can be made. This will hopefully become the yearly circle.
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Authors of letters of intents, which contain good ideas, but are not selected because of the quality of the proposals, will be invited for a proposal development workshop to help them improve upon the proposal. They will then be able to compete in the next rounds of calls for proposals. This is one of the ways of capacity building in the Ghanaian Dutch Research Programme.
The programme is already started. We hope that it will lead to good partnership resulting in usable and good research results, while the infrastructure and capacity for the health research for development is strengthened.
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