This programme aims to generate world-class research that focuses on strengthening and improving health systems in low and middle income countries. Research explores the performance of the health system as a whole rather than taking a disease-specific focus.
Launched in 2013, the Health Systems Research Initiative aims to generate world-class research that addresses key questions on strengthening and improving health systems in developing countries.
Health systems research addresses questions that are not disease-specific but concern issues that have repercussions on the performance of the health system as a whole. We recognise that health systems are complex, and include not only formal healthcare delivery systems (public or private), but also other factors. These include:
- health education
- community and individual action
- the regulatory and legislative context
- the existing and emerging social, economic and cultural circumstances.
Research questions focus on understanding these broader health system links. They describe how and why findings from the project have the potential to improve people’s health in low and middle income countries. Proposals demonstrate how interventions relate to and affect wider elements of a health system such as governance, financing, health workforce, information systems, and service delivery.
The programme funded methodologically rigorous, high quality research that will:
- generate evidence on how to strengthen and improve health systems for people living in low and middle income countries
- use a health systems approach to inform the delivery of evidence-based interventions or structural changes
- provide evidence that is of direct relevance to decision makers and practitioners in the field.