Call for research proposals from civil society organizations (CSOs)

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Call for research proposals from civil society organizations (CSOs)

The WHO Scientific Resource Group on Equity Analysis and Research together with

the Global Forum for Health Research and People's Health Movement announce a

call for research proposals from civil society organizations (CSOs) on the

theme:

‘Advancing health equity through research and practice †" identifying what

works to reduce health inequities’.

Deadline for receipt of entries is 23 May 2010

CSOs interested in evaluating the interventions they implemented and their

impacts both on health outcomes and on health equity are invited to submit

research proposals. The interventions (including policies, programmes, etc) to

be evaluated need to address social, economic and political determinants of

health. Submission of proposals dealing with interventions and research projects

already in progress is strongly encouraged.

Background

Published research oriented toward reducing health inequity has until recently

been devoted more to explaining health inequities than to designing and

evaluating policy interventions to reduce inequities. Research is needed to

evaluate the health equity impact of policy and actions, whether in the health

sector or in other sectors. One of the three top level recommendations by the

WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) is to continue research,

monitoring and evaluation, with a focus on what interventions work to reduce

health inequities. The recent WHO Task Force Report on “Priorities for

research on equity and healthâ€, called for a third wave in global health

research, that explicitly links broader social, political, and economic

determinants with improvements in equity in health, and emphasized the need for

innovative research designs for evaluating policy and program interventions to

reduce health inequities.

Local level solutions and those addressing a broad range of social determinants

are often those with the greatest innovation and impact. For example, policies

and projects addressing issues such as provision of education, water and

sanitation, and farming technologies or the empowerment of disadvantaged groups

have significant potential consequences for health and health equity. Civil

Society Organizations (CSOs) often lead the development and implementation of

such interventions that lead to concrete improvements in real life settings, and

yet CSOs don't always have the opportunity to document or evaluate interventions

that are in place. Moreover, CSOs need to be viewed as potential partners in the

entire research process, i.e. from the design stage to dissemination cycle, and

should not be viewed as merely being capable of voicing “community needs†or

disseminating research findings. In addition, research funding needs to be

sensitive to the necessity for civil society participation throughout - from the

stage of priority setting to refining evaluation methods and to communicating

what concrete actions can be taken to reduce health inequities. Finally, civil

society has a key role in policy change through its constituencies in engaging

on and influencing policy choices, and in linking the evidence and knowledge

from research to policy processes. These processes were discussed and further

reinforced during the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health 2008 in

Bamako and during Global Forum on Health Research 2009 in Havana.

Examples of high-priority research questions addressing action on social

determinants of health

Interventions that address health equity implications of current trends in food

prices, agricultural policies and food (in)security, and changes in trade and

investment in all aspects of food production, processing and sale. What policy

and program responses will avoid negative impacts, and reduce food insecurity?

Interventions that address different policy entry points to reduce the health

inequities arising from health worker migration patterns, identifying the

critical policy actors.

Interventions that address women’s health and social protection given the

increasing “feminisation†of work forces that has often accompanied the

globalisation of labour markets.

Interventions that address health equity with global climate change concerns, at

the local level.

Interventions that use organisational structures within health systems to

sustain active community participation, inter-sectoral action on social

determinants of health, and the abilities of community members to influence

policies.

Interventions that combine policy and implementation models, across sectors,

that lead to improved local decision-making, net health equity gains in

different vulnerable populations and community empowerment?

Interventions and approaches that effectively involve targeted communities or

populations in intervention development, implementation and evaluation?

Interventions that effectively involve other sectors than the health sector in

action oriented approaches to address health inequalities related to a wide

range of health hazards (environmental, occupational, infrastructure such as

roads, sanitation, etc.)?

Purpose of the call

This call for research proposals aims at:

Identifying the four most promising operational research and evaluation

proposals submitted by CSOs;

Refining methods, particularly on the attribution of changes in the distribution

of health resulting from the interventions, and considerations to increase the

interpretation and potential generalisability of results. For this, selected

research proposals will be presented, discussed and improved during the 20th

IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion, in Geneva, Switzerland;

Facilitating the conduct of winning research proposals by expert mentoring,

facilitating contacts with potential research funders, a cash award of up to USD

10,000 (to contribute to evaluation of the intervention) and facilitating the

dissemination of results.

Eligibility to apply for the call

The Principal Investigator in the proposal must be drawn from a civil society

organization (CSO), such as registered charities, development NGOs, community

groups, women's organizations, faith-based organizations, professional

associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social movements, business

associations, coalitions and advocacy groups.

Research proposals must be aimed at evaluating interventions (including

policies, programmes, etc) addressing social, economic and political

determinants of health, and their impacts both on health outcomes and on health

equity. The evaluation should examine inequities among different social groups,

not only between one disadvantaged group and a population average. Interventions

are those implemented by civil society organizations (CSOs) and could

potentially be adapted for implementation in other countries.

Teams submitting expressions of interest should demonstrate expertise in

research for health or development, ability to design evaluation studies and

ability to analyze data to evaluate impacts of interventions on health and

health equity. Demonstration of advanced writing skills will be an advantage.

Submission of proposals dealing with interventions and research projects already

in progress is strongly encouraged.

A budget and timeline must be included, specifying how the case award will

contribute to the overall evaluation of the intervention.

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Relevance of the intervention to be evaluated and its potential impact on

public health and equity (25%)

Does the research evaluation involve the participation of individuals that

should benefit from the intervention? Does the intervention address broader

determinants of health?

2. Appropriateness of the methodological approach proposed for evaluating and

documenting the success of the intervention on health equity, and exploring the

factors responsible for success (25%)

Can the question proposed be answered through well-designed and conducted

evaluation?

Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem areas and consider alternative

tactics?

Does the project develop or employ novel concepts, approaches, methodologies,

tools, or technologies for this area of investigation?

3. Technical capacity of the proposed research team and appropriateness of

budget and timeline proposed (25%)

Is the research that is proposed logistically feasible, financially possible,

and likely to produce timely results?

Does the investigative team bring complementary and integrated expertise to the

project?

Does the proposed study benefit from unique features of the population the

intervention addresses and/or employ useful collaborative arrangements?

4. Scope for learning lessons, generalisability of results and potential

application to other contexts (25%)

What scope will the findings have to influence public policy and stimulate

further action?

How feasible will it be to rapidly and widely implement the results of the

research study?

Will the answers to the research question be generalizable to different

settings, in the country and potentially beyond?

The final selection of proposals will be made principally upon the scores

awarded to the proposals, but will also take account of geographical

distribution of submissions and country income classification.

The sponsoring organizations reserve the right to select fewer applicants.

Format of Application

The application should not be longer than four pages or 2000 words, with the

following outline:

Intervention to be evaluated

Methodology, including how equity impact (distribution of health) on the

population will be assessed and what dimensions of equity will be looked at.

How the results of the evaluation will be potentially useful to other contexts

Team

Budget and timeline

The application should be completed in any of the UN official languages (Arabic,

Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish). If you want to submit in another

language, please request in advance.

Selection process

Step 1: The WHO Scientific Resource Group (SRG) on Equity Analysis and Research,

sub-group on research and the Global Forum for Health Research will screen all

applications according to the eligibility criteria. The ones which are

incomplete will, in principle, not be processed further.

Step 2: Applications (without identification data) will be sent to and evaluated

by the selection committee, composed of experts in the field of Equity Analysis

and Research, including individuals from the SRG on Health Equity Analysis and

Research and People’s Health Movement.

Step 3: Applicants will be notified in June 2010 as to whether or not they have

been selected. Up to four winning proposals will be posted on the PHM-Global

Forum-WHO websites for open consultation and principal investigators be invited

(travel, registration and accommodation paid) to present their proposals during

the IUHPE Conference in Geneva.

Step 4: Proposals will be amended by the research teams and the winners granted

with a first installment of half of the award, a quarter after interim progress

report and a quarter after final report.

Key dates

21 April 2010 Opening date for applications

23 May 2010 Deadline for submission of applications

30 May to 4 June Selection of applications

7 June 2010 Successful applicants informed

14 June 2010 Proposals posted on PHM-Global Forum-WHO websites for open

consultation

11-15 July 2010 Session during IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion in

Geneva: successful applicants present more details on their proposals and an

expert panel and audience further discusses

1 September 2010 Final proposals posted on PHM-Global Forum-WHO websites.

September 2010 Initiation of intervention evaluation research

July 2011 Interim progress report

March 2012 Final report

June 2012 Learning across all projects synthesized

The application should be emailed as a Word or PDF document to Sylvie Olifson.

In the header of the email, please put " CSOs advancing health equityâ€. Receipt

of applications will be confirmed by e-mail. The deadline for submission is 23

May 2010.

Source:

http://www.globalforumhealth.org/Media-Publications/Archive-news/Call-for-resear\

ch-proposals-from-civil-society-organizations-CSOs