Theme | Outcome of group discussion |
---|---|
(A). Importance of domestic funding for HPSR | |
(i). To the researcher | Better researcher-funder relationship Improves access to funding Conduct of policy-relevant research |
(ii). To institution | Increases research in priority areas Enhanced institutional visibility and sustainability of programmes Improves human research development |
(iii). To government | Improves trust and ownership of research evidence Increases researcher-policymaker communication Avoids parallel funding Institutionalizes evidence informed policymaking |
(iv). To society | Improves societal trust in research findings Enhances community ownership and participation Encourages need-based research |
(B). Potential and current Sources of funding for HPSR | |
(i). Public | Real Sector Intervention fund, general tax revenues, value added tax, internally generated revenue |
(ii). Private | Corporate organizations like commercial banks, Non-governmental organizations and donor agencies, philanthropists, faith-based organizations |
(C). SWOT Analysis of domestic funding in Nigeria | |
(i). Strengths | Existing national priority areas, existing researcher interests |
(ii). Weaknesses | Corruption, budget approval not being equivalent to release of funds, bureaucratic bottlenecks, tribalism, poor needs assessment |
(iii). Opportunities | Already existing budget allocation for health research, corporate agencies and companies that have shown interest in funding healthcare research |
(iv). Threats | Bureaucracies/ bottlenecks limit release of budget allocation, non-sustainability of funding policies due to political changes in government regimes, prevailing poor accountability resulting in corrupt funding practices, vested interests, nepotism |
(D). Consequences of poor domestic funding | |
(i). To the researcher | Low morale for research and lack of fulfillment, poor career development, low visibility for researchers |
(ii). To institution | Poor institutional research development and visibility, limited data for advocacy, limited priority-based research, poor sustainability of programmes, poor institutional contribution to national development |
(iii). To government | Donor-dependent research to the detriment of national research priorities, poor linkages between researchers and policymaking resulting in poor use of evidence in policymaking, poor sustainability of policies and projects |
(E). Strategies to improve domestic funding for HPSR | |
(i). To the researcher | Researcher capacity enhancement to improve advocacy skills, advocacy coalitions by researchers and professional associations for demand creation on research funding, improved quality and alignment of research with national health research priorities |
(ii). To institution | Enhanced researcher capacity at institutional level Institutional advocacy for research funding |
(iii). To government | Budgetary advocacy to ensure inclusion of HPSR funding in the national and subnational budgets, stakeholder advocacy and lobbying to ensure that approved fund is released, media engagement and networking, demanding for accountability |