Promoting road traffic injuries research in South Asia: capacity strengthening in health research.

Ideally, health policies should be based on valid scientific evidence and such evidence requires health research. Health research is also an essential tool for achieving equity in health and development. Although the need to carry out health research is now well accepted, South Asian countries still lag behind and do not make any meaningful contributions to health research and development. This paucity in research work is due to a lack of incentives, shortage of skilled manpower, poor exposure and insufficient orientation to the methods and materials of biomedical research. Research capacity is a tool to help a country deal with its national health problems in as effective and efficient a manner as possible. It is, therefore, part of the national health system and should be integrated in a comprehensive national health plan for the promotion of health and the delivery of health services to the country. Capacity strengthening is recognized as a crucial step in the process of integrating the use of research for decision-making in the health system of a country. This is especially true for conditions such as road traffic injuries, which present a new challenge for existing health systems.