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G8 Summit to take up health research
23 Jun 2008
Greer van Zyl
Source: TropIKA.net
For the first time, health research is likely to be raised at the G8 Summit in Japan in September, following a high level meeting in June which brought some of the world’s biggest donors together to talk about gaps in research to improve healthcare delivery.
According to Dr Tikki Pang, Director: Research Policy and Cooperation at WHO, a task force will develop the next steps which include identifying the research needs, monitoring and evaluation needs of any research supported, and health information.
“The idea is to use the high level G8 meeting to improve the visibility of health research at the highest political level, which has not happened before and we are quite excited about this,” said Dr Pang.
“This will lead up to the Global Ministerial Forum for Health Research to be held in Bamako, Mali in November, where the WHO will chair a panel discussion of the top five global funders of health research. I hope this discussion will be a culmination of intent from the Mexico meeting in 2004 where health ministers agreed that more resources were needed for public health research, and hopefully pledge to support health systems research.”
He identified the big public health risks and threats which needed investment in research as non-communicable diseases, climate change, and the importance of inter-sectoral collaboration, notably with agriculture with its links with bird flu. “We need more public health trust and we need knowledge to be turned into action,” concluded Dr Pang.
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