PHM-Exch> Call for research proposals from civil society organizations (CSOs)

[PHM Global Secretariat]

*Posted by the PHM Global Secretariat
*


The *WHO Scientific Resource Group on Equity Analysis and
Research<http://www.who.int/eth/en/>
* together with the *Global Forum for Health
Research<http://www.globalforumhealth.org/>
* and *People's Health Movement <http://www.phmovement.org/>** *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
health”<http://www.globalhealthequity.ca/electronic%20library/Priorities%20for%20research%20on%20equity%20and%20health.pdf>,
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?

   1. 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?

   1. 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?

   1. 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*:

1.              Intervention to be evaluated

2.              Methodology, including how equity impact (distribution of
health) on the population will be assessed and what dimensions of equity
will be looked at.

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

4.              Team

5.              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-GFHR-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 at globalforumhealth.org. In the header of the email, please put
"CSOs advancing health equity”. Receipt of applications will be confirmed by
e-mail.
The deadline for submission is 23 May 2010.
--
Global Secretariat
People's Health Movement (PHM)
Email: globalsecretariat at phmovement.org
Web: www.phmovement.org
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