As the 77th World Health Assembly wound down last week, on Friday 31 May, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at WHO hosted an event – co-sponsored by the governments of Chile, Japan and Norway – titled ‘From insights to action: how do we make health research and learning more impactful to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?’. The gathering featured influential voices from around the globe, each offering unique perspectives on bridging the gap between research and impactful health policies.
Setting the scene
Kumanan Rasanathan, Executive Director of the Alliance, set the tone with his opening remarks. He acknowledged the challenging times we live in but remained optimistic. He highlighted the paradox of increased investment and publications in health research not translating into meeting health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, he remained hopeful that research can inform implementation and drive change.
The event continued with a presentation from Robert Marten from the Alliance on its new strategy, Aiming for impact, which emphasizes working with countries to achieve better health and health equity through health policy and systems research.
Perspectives from the panel
The heart of the event was a panel moderated by the Alliance’s Aku Kwamie, featuring experts from diverse backgrounds:
- Cathrine Marie Lofthus discussed the tension between public health protections and personal freedoms, using tobacco control in Norway as an example. She also talked about the role of research in engaging with the political economy of change.
- Hajime Inoue shared insights into Japan’s exceptional health status, attributing much of the success to the work of public health nurses. “Public health nurses have power and influence,” he said, emphasizing their role in promoting healthy lifestyles and conducting local research.
- Jeanette Vega stressed the importance of relevant and timely research. She highlighted the critical need for political relevance and the capacity to synthesize evidence in real time, citing crises like COVID-19 and lessons from Chile. “The capacity to communicate research in simple terms to politicians is key to policy impact,” she asserted.
- Sandro Galea spoke on the power of storytelling and evidence synthesis in achieving impact. He pointed out that the influence of research in high-income nations often depends on funders’ priorities, while low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) need strengthened research infrastructure.
- Diah Saminarsih highlighted the importance of co-creating research with affected communities. She reflected on the complex roles civil society organizations play from her experience in Indonesia.
Impartial evidence?
The insights from the panel were enhanced with discussion from attendees. Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet, noted that there is a big space between scholarship and activism that researchers can step into. He also highlighted the need for multidisciplinary hubs to tackle the complex challenges facing the world today.
Jeanette Vega underscored that research is rarely neutral and agreed that the institutional arrangements we have today are outmoded in a rapidly changing world. Viroj Tangcharoensathien, Senior Advisor to the International Health Policy Program in Thailand, urged academics to step down from their so-called ivory tower and find ways of engaging directly with policy-making processes. Meanwhile, David Peters, Dean of the Faculty of Health at York University in Canada, maintained that the incentive structures for academics were not necessarily aligned to creating change, suggesting that the focus should be on high-impact research and not just on publishing research in high-impact journals.
The way forward
As part of the panel discussion, the role of development partners also came into question. Sandro Galea suggested three key actions: supporting community participation in research, building research infrastructure, and effectively communicating the value of research.
Diah Saminarsih concluded that, when working as part of civil society, it’s easy to be pulled in many different directions. “Are you an activist? Should you be trying to persuade policy-makers? Is your role to serve your community?”, she wondered. At the end of the day, though, the way she navigates these murky waters, her polestar is science.
The event concluded with powerful reflections from Jeremy Farrar, who argued that “we are in a scientific golden age,” but also that we are at a crossroads where science can either exacerbate or alleviate inequities. “We need to create a culture of science use.”