january 21 2017
Kick-off Meeting for the Development of the NUHRA 2017-2022
A kick-off meeting for the Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA) was held on January 19 at the La Breza Hotel in Quezon City. The NUHRA will serve as the country’s template for health research and development efforts, and it will specify the areas and topics that need to be addressed in line with global and national initiatives influencing the health sector within a 5-year scope.
Led by the Alliance for Improving Health Outcomes (AIHO), Inc., the meeting was entitled NUHRA 2017-2022: Preparation, Advocacy, Monitoring and Evaluation. The main objectives of the meeting were to present the project and its methods to select stakeholders, and to identify challenges in the design and implementation of the project.
The morning session was facilitated by Dr. Miguel Dorotan, Dr. Lester Geroy, Dr. Ma. Rowena Alcido, and Deo Estanislao. The session was primarily an orientation to the project and delved into a variety of topics such as the background, objectives, framework, methodology, implementation, and operational and communication protocols relevant to the development of NUHRA.
The morning session also included a presentation of Research Cycle and Research Bottlenecks in Region VI and the Regional Research Agenda Setting Experience in Region VI by Dr. Cherie Grace Quingking.
The meeting’s afternoon session involved discussions on the admin and human resource aspects of the NUHRA, led by Rowena Gamba and KC Teodoro. A breakout session on Technical Paper Brainstorming was then led by Dr. Ma. Rowena Alcido.
The NUHRA will also serve as a reflection of the common research threads from the 17 Regional Unified Health Research Agendas (RUHRA). The RUHRA defines the research priorities of a particular region, taking into consideration its peculiarities and local context.