Uptake and impact of research for evidence-based practice: lessons from the Africa Health Systems Initiative Support to African Research Partnerships

Introduction In 2008, the Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI) invited applications from teams of researchers and decision-makers who were interested in conducting research related to human resources for health and the implementation and use of integrated health information systems in Africa, with special attention to equity considerations. These thematic areas constituted the focus of the Africa Health Systems Initiative Support to African Research Partnerships (AHSI-RES) program. GHRI is a partnership of three Canadian agencies: Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). It is hosted at IDRC. AHSI-RES is a five year, $5.9 million CDN research program (2008-2014) supported by Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada ($5 million) and the International Development Research Centre ($900 000). AHSI-RES is the research component of the larger Africa Health Systems Initiative (AHSI) program. The AHSI program is a 10 year, $450 million CDN commitment (2006-2016) to strengthening national-level health strategies and architecture, and is being implemented by Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. The AHSI-RES program’s purpose is to support policy relevant research, knowledge translation and exchange in the program’s thematic areas. The AHSI-RES program emphasized the importance of ongoing interaction, collaboration, and exchange of ideas between researchers and decision-makers to maximize the likelihood that research findings would be used to inform programs and policies. A decision-maker was defined as ‘an individual who makes decisions about, or influences, health policies or practices.’ IDRC program officers engage with grantees in framing research problems, improving research designs, and choosing methodologies. IDRC staff and funded researchers work as peers to contribute new ideas and theories, influence practice and policy, and strengthen research networks, bringing together grantees to share research results [1]. This is known as the grants plus approach. Through this approach, program officers were able to respond to grantee-identified needs for building or strengthening local capacity for research, knowledge translation, and research use. The objective was to demonstrate a clear link between research, policy, and action to improve the health outcomes of the most vulnerable populations of the region. Teams had to include one African researcher and one African decision-maker, both as co-principal applicants. The co-principal applicants had to be affiliated with an institution located in one of the AHSI-RES geographic areas of focus. Geographic areas of focus included: Francophone West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin); Great Lakes and Eastern Africa (Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya); and, Southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia). Researchers and decision-makers affiliated with a nonAfrican institution were eligible as co-applicants or collaborators, additional to the African co-principal applicants.