Cargando…

A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region

BACKGROUND: In conflict settings, research capacities have often been de-prioritized as resources are diverted to emergency needs, such as addressing elevated morbidity, mortality and health system challenges directly and/or indirectly associated to war. This has had an adverse long-term impact in s...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: El Achi, Nassim, Papamichail, Andreas, Rizk, Anthony, Lindsay, Helen, Menassa, Marilyne, Abdul-Khalek, Rima A., Ekzayez, Abdulkarim, Dewachi, Omar, Patel, Preeti
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6883714/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31779660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-019-0525-3
_version_ 1783474440487567360
author El Achi, Nassim
Papamichail, Andreas
Rizk, Anthony
Lindsay, Helen
Menassa, Marilyne
Abdul-Khalek, Rima A.
Ekzayez, Abdulkarim
Dewachi, Omar
Patel, Preeti
author_facet El Achi, Nassim
Papamichail, Andreas
Rizk, Anthony
Lindsay, Helen
Menassa, Marilyne
Abdul-Khalek, Rima A.
Ekzayez, Abdulkarim
Dewachi, Omar
Patel, Preeti
author_sort El Achi, Nassim
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In conflict settings, research capacities have often been de-prioritized as resources are diverted to emergency needs, such as addressing elevated morbidity, mortality and health system challenges directly and/or indirectly associated to war. This has had an adverse long-term impact in such protracted conflicts such as those found in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), where research knowledge and skills have often been compromised. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for health research capacity strengthening that adapts existing models and frameworks in low- and middle-income countries and uses our knowledge of the MENA context to contextualise them for conflict settings. METHODS: The framework was synthesized using “best fit” framework synthesis methodology. Relevant literature, available in English and Arabic, was collected through PubMed, Google Scholar and Google using the keywords: capacity building; capacity strengthening; health research; framework and conflict. Grey literature was also assessed. RESULTS: The framework is composed of eight principal themes: “structural levels”, “the influence of the external environment”, “funding, community needs and policy environment”, “assessing existing capacity and needs”, “infrastructure and communication”, “training, leadership and partnership”, “adaptability and sustainability”, and “monitoring and evaluation”; with each theme being supported by examples from the MENA region. Our proposed framework takes into consideration safety, infrastructure, communication and adaptability as key factors that affect research capacity strengthening in conflict. As it is the case more generally, funding, permissible political environments and sustainability are major determinants of success for capacity strengthening for health research programmes, though these are significantly more challenging in conflict settings. Nonetheless, health research capacity strengthening should remain a priority. CONCLUSION: The model presented is the first framework that focuses on strengthening health research capacity in conflict with a focus on the MENA region. It should be viewed as a non-prescriptive reference tool for health researchers and practitioners, from various disciplines, involved in research capacity strengthening to evaluate, use, adapt and improve. It can be further extended to include representative indicators and can be later evaluated by assessing its efficacy for interventions in conflict settings.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6883714
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-68837142019-12-03 A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region El Achi, Nassim Papamichail, Andreas Rizk, Anthony Lindsay, Helen Menassa, Marilyne Abdul-Khalek, Rima A. Ekzayez, Abdulkarim Dewachi, Omar Patel, Preeti Global Health Research BACKGROUND: In conflict settings, research capacities have often been de-prioritized as resources are diverted to emergency needs, such as addressing elevated morbidity, mortality and health system challenges directly and/or indirectly associated to war. This has had an adverse long-term impact in such protracted conflicts such as those found in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), where research knowledge and skills have often been compromised. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for health research capacity strengthening that adapts existing models and frameworks in low- and middle-income countries and uses our knowledge of the MENA context to contextualise them for conflict settings. METHODS: The framework was synthesized using “best fit” framework synthesis methodology. Relevant literature, available in English and Arabic, was collected through PubMed, Google Scholar and Google using the keywords: capacity building; capacity strengthening; health research; framework and conflict. Grey literature was also assessed. RESULTS: The framework is composed of eight principal themes: “structural levels”, “the influence of the external environment”, “funding, community needs and policy environment”, “assessing existing capacity and needs”, “infrastructure and communication”, “training, leadership and partnership”, “adaptability and sustainability”, and “monitoring and evaluation”; with each theme being supported by examples from the MENA region. Our proposed framework takes into consideration safety, infrastructure, communication and adaptability as key factors that affect research capacity strengthening in conflict. As it is the case more generally, funding, permissible political environments and sustainability are major determinants of success for capacity strengthening for health research programmes, though these are significantly more challenging in conflict settings. Nonetheless, health research capacity strengthening should remain a priority. CONCLUSION: The model presented is the first framework that focuses on strengthening health research capacity in conflict with a focus on the MENA region. It should be viewed as a non-prescriptive reference tool for health researchers and practitioners, from various disciplines, involved in research capacity strengthening to evaluate, use, adapt and improve. It can be further extended to include representative indicators and can be later evaluated by assessing its efficacy for interventions in conflict settings. BioMed Central 2019-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6883714/ /pubmed/31779660 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-019-0525-3 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
El Achi, Nassim
Papamichail, Andreas
Rizk, Anthony
Lindsay, Helen
Menassa, Marilyne
Abdul-Khalek, Rima A.
Ekzayez, Abdulkarim
Dewachi, Omar
Patel, Preeti
A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region
title A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region
title_full A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region
title_fullStr A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region
title_full_unstemmed A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region
title_short A conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the Middle East and North Africa region
title_sort conceptual framework for capacity strengthening of health research in conflict: the case of the middle east and north africa region
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6883714/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31779660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-019-0525-3
work_keys_str_mv AT elachinassim aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT papamichailandreas aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT rizkanthony aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT lindsayhelen aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT menassamarilyne aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT abdulkhalekrimaa aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT ekzayezabdulkarim aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT dewachiomar aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT patelpreeti aconceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT elachinassim conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT papamichailandreas conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT rizkanthony conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT lindsayhelen conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT menassamarilyne conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT abdulkhalekrimaa conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT ekzayezabdulkarim conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT dewachiomar conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion
AT patelpreeti conceptualframeworkforcapacitystrengtheningofhealthresearchinconflictthecaseofthemiddleeastandnorthafricaregion