Building ownership of research in Ghana

The Research and Development Division (RDD) is the research arm of the Ghana Health Service. Previously named the Health Research Unit, the RDD was established over 20 years ago with the aim of building research capacity within the Ghana Health Service to conduct policy-relevant research.

By being situated within the Ghana Health Service, RDD has good access, through meetings with senior management and progress reports, to different programme managers and directors. They have used this to encourage collaboration with senior managers within the Ghana Health Service throughout the cycle of research: from setting agendas to discussing policy relevance.

Collaboration and dialogue with multiple stakeholders is a means of taking ownership of a research process and making it more likely that research findings are relevant and used by different groups

RDD have applied this approach to research conducted within the Addressing the Balance of Burden in AIDS (ABBA) Research Programme Consortium on HIV and orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) with the following aims:

• to tackle the lack of knowledge and awareness of policy guidelines for OVCs
• to better identify OVCs in communities and consider changes to how interventions are implemented 
• to build awareness of organisations and services provided for OVCs.

The research focus was agreed following national and regional meetings that brought together key stakeholders including policymakers, people living with HIV and AIDS, and orphanage managers. These meetings took careful planning and skilled facilitation to manage and reach consensus between people with different views on research priorities.

RDD provided regular updates of preliminary research findings to those working with OVCs and had ongoing interaction with users of research findings to ensure that suitable formats for dissemination were being used.

The success of RDD’s approach points to the value of collaboration and dialogue with multiple stakeholders as a means of taking ownership of a research process and making it more likely that research findings are relevant and used by different groups. The work on OVCs has led to a greater awareness of the existence of policy guidelines for OVCs in Ghana, and has informed RDD’s decision to use documentaries as an effective way to disseminate findings.

Johnny Gyapong
Research and Development Division, Ghana Health Service, Private Mail Bag, Ministries, Accra, Ghana
John.Gyapong@hru-ghs.org
www.ghanahealthservice.org/

The Research and Development Division is a partner in the Addressing the Balance of Burden in AIDS (ABBA) RPC