Enreca Health > About > ENRECA Achievements > Setting the agenda
Setting the agenda - seeking to promote global health research and capacity development
ENRECA Health has a proven track record of bringing new global health challenges to the public agenda. It has also contributed to ensuring that international health plays an important role in Denmark's development cooperation.
The landscape of development cooperation is under a constant pressure to adapt and evolve. New issues such as fragile states, climate change, economic growth and employment creation emerge and other issues with a much longer history, such as health, receive less attention.
Opinion pieces
ENRECA Health has reacted promptly whenever there have been indications that the position of health, health research and research capacity development within the Danida system was under threat. As a result of many internal and external efforts, international health has maintained a distinct position within the strategy for Denmark's development cooperation and within the Universities Danmark's Building Stronger Universities in Developing Countries initiative.
The following opinion pieces discuss the role of health during the drafting of the 2010 strategy for Denmark's development cooperation:
- Søren Pind: Vi har ikke glemt sundheden. Jyllands-Posten, 18 Juni 2010.
- Ib Bygbjerg, Nils Strandberg Pederesen & Lars Rebien Sørensen: Husk sundheden, Søren Pind. Jyllands-Posten, 15 Juni 2010.
- Morten Sodemann: Danmark skal satse på sundhed i u-landene. Information, 1 December 2009.
- Jens Seeberg: Sundheden prioriteres for svagt i Danidas nye strategi. Kristeligt Dagblad, 20 November 2009.
- Lise Rosendal Østergaard og Flemming Konradsen: Ulighed i sundhedens verden. Jyllands-Posten, 20 November 2009.
Danida's Guidance notes on health
In 2008, Danida's Technical Advisory Services initiated a process of developing a guidance note on Health and on Health research. The drafting process was piloted by an external consultant and members of the Network participated in the technical background group of the guidance note.
At the same time, a process to draft a Guidance Note on Research for Health and Development was initiated. Although Danida for years has funded capacity building for research as well as direct grants to individuals and groups undertaking health related research ranking from malaria vaccine development to reproductive health among marginalised groups, there has never existed a strategy on research for health. Such a strategy has been called for by ENRECA Health, researchers and health advisers alike for years.
In November 2009 the guidance note was launched. The document ‘Danish support to research for health' can be found as an Annex 5 to the Guidance Note on Health.
Working with global actors
ENRECA Health is composed of resource persons with broad and multidisciplinary expertise, which has been made available to donors, networks and organisations wishing to promote the role and position of global health research and capacity building. For example, ENRECA Health members have together with staff from Danida's Technical Advisory Services and its Department for Global Cooperation and Economy participated as technical experts in organising meetings in Denmark with WHO, UNFPA and other UN agencies, as well as acted as back-up experts to Danida staff at international technical meetings.
Global Forum on Health Research
One of the leading conferences on global health research and capacity building has been and remains the Global Forum on Health Research. Members of ENRECA Health have participated in these conferences for the past decade with increasingly involvement in terms of co-organising satellite meetings and giving key note presentations on behalf of ENRECA Health.
As a consequence of its steady participation in the past Global Forums and the continuous contact with Council on Health Research for Development, ENRECA Health was invited to become a member of the steering committee and an anchor for a session on networks and networking experiences for the Forum 2012 held in Cape Town, South Africa.
