Malawi, with the support of Welcome Trust, the Department for International Development (DFID) UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC) is implementing a five year Health Research Capacity Strengthening Initiative (HRCSI) programme. The HRCSI seeks to expand and promote multidisciplinary health research in Malawi. In collaboration with national stakeholders, the programme aims to enhance institutional capacity for multi-disciplinary health research; promote the use of research in the formulation of national health policies and programmes; enhance dissemination of scientific knowledge in Malawi; and strengthen the regulation and coordination of the national research component.
In collaboration with stakeholders including the Ministry of Health, NCST through the HRCSI is supporting the development of a National Health Research Agenda for Malawi.
The goal of the National Health Research Agenda (NHRA) is to provide a national framework for health research, and to identify issues of common concern, research needs, and priorities of national interest. In particular, the health research agenda will identify priority areas for research and hence help to guide and inform the allocation of scarce health care resources. In addition, the research agenda will create an enabling environment for highimpact, more coordinated, collaborative and cost-effective health research. It will also prevent duplication of research efforts and strengthen the research to policy and practice interface. The overall aim of the research agenda is to help ensure effective co-ordination of health research and an optimum sharing of information and resources.
These thematic areas will help to: Identify research gaps and prevent unnecessary duplication of research effort; Improve co-ordination and collaboration of research activities and hence
achieve economies of scale and assist in prioritizing funding of research activities.
The HRCSI invited expressions of interest from potential consultants to conduct research in the identified thematic research areas with the aim of identifying research gaps. Specifically,
the gap analysis is to determine what research has been done and what has not been done under each thematic area. In addition, the consultant would identify research priority areas
for each research theme. This report focuses on Reproductive Health Theme.