TDR Strategy 2024–2029
TDR Strategy 2024–2029
Building local research solutions to improve global health
Vision
The health and well-being of people burdened by infectious diseases of poverty is improved through the power of research and innovation.
Mission
To support innovative global health research, strengthen in-country health research systems and promote the translation of evidence to improve interventions that reduce the burden of infectious diseases for the most under-served and vulnerable populations.
TDR’s unique value
TDR’s focus on supporting implementation research and strengthening research capacity in low- and middle-income countries, combined with our position in the United Nations through our co-sponsors – the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) – is our unique value. This gives TDR direct access to our co-sponsors’ health programmes and country and regional offices, as well as convening power to ensure key stakeholders from health and related sectors, national governments and academia share their expertise, experience and resources. Our unique position within the United Nations family allows us to create a bridge from local communities and researchers in countries to the World Health Assembly, enabling the broadest possible scope of dialogue and debate across the spectrum of health research.
Summary
An unrelenting series of public health emergencies in recent years has highlighted the critical role of implementation research in informing health policy and practice. But evidence is not only fundamental to emergency response efforts. Building capacity for health research strengthens the resilience of health systems as a whole, so they can serve all people all the time.
For almost 50 years, TDR has been a leader in research to address infectious diseases of poverty and in building the capacity of people, communities and institutions in low- and middle-income countries. We support evidence generation in disease-affected countries to foster innovations that improve health.
This 2024–2029 strategy builds on our experience, to support country-led implementation research that improves access to, and scale-up of, health interventions, strategies and policies and strengthens health systems.
We will work with implementers and social innovators, alongside researchers, to help democratize research and demonstrate that it is a useful and practical tool for people tackling health issues on the ground.
Democratizing research
“I am not an academic researcher, but TDR has made it possible for me to conduct rigorous studies and generate powerful insights that my country is using to improve surveillance of antimicrobial use in the agricultural and human health sectors. In this way, TDR is expanding access to research for implementers, decision-makers, frontline health workers and communities who have a vested interest in using the evidence to make an impact on health.”
– Dr Amara Leno, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Sierra Leone
In collaboration with universities and research organizations in low- and middle-income countries, we will meet the growing demand for implementation research training and contribute to a new generation of public health leaders.
The implementation of our new strategy relies heavily on how we partner with stakeholders. As a Special Programme based at WHO headquarters, we will continue to work closely with many WHO departments and the six WHO regional offices. This strong connection helps us to coordinate our work and leverage WHO actions that improve health on the ground.
Relationships with our other co-sponsors at UNICEF, UNDP and the World Bank, and with numerous other global health partners, are also critical to our success, particularly in optimizing our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Implementation research is essential to understanding and overcoming challenges to accessing health care and achieving universal health coverage
Why did only 36% of people in the world with drug-resistant TB have access to treatment in 2021?
Source: Global Tuberculosis Report 2022
Why did only 36% of people in the world with drug-resistant TB have access to treatment in 2021?
Source: Global Tuberculosis Report 2022
Why did 10 million eligible children in sub-Saharan Africa not have access to medicines that would protect them against seasonal malaria outbreaks in 2020?
Source: Medicines for Malaria Venture
Why did 10 million eligible children in sub-Saharan Africa not have access to medicines that would protect them against seasonal malaria outbreaks in 2020?
Source: Medicines for Malaria Venture
Our focus remains firmly on addressing infectious diseases of poverty, and our new strategy is grounded in country-led priorities. However, we recognize that this cannot be done effectively without taking into consideration the changing global context – political, economic, social and environmental (including climate change and loss of biodiversity) – in which we work. We will be proactive in identifying opportunities where our activities can contribute to building country resilience to four major global health challenges.
Research to address global health challenges
TDR will focus on four major global health challenges affecting infectious diseases of poverty using a One Health approach.
These global health challenges will be addressed through three strategic approaches:
• Research support – We will continue to support and facilitate implementation research to improve access to quality interventions that reduce the burden of infectious diseases on the most vulnerable. This includes research for delivery and access, research for innovative solutions and research for decision-making.
• Research training for capacity strengthening – We will continue to respond to growing demand for implementation research training, in collaboration with partners in low- and middle-income countries. This training goes beyond academics to include those working in the community, implementing programmes and policy-makers. We will also develop health research leadership in low- and middle-income countries, through the Postgraduate Training Scheme and the Clinical Research Leadership programme.
• Global engagement – We will continue to engage with the global health community to promote and facilitate the role of research for development and to advocate for the use of high-quality evidence to inform policy. Our unique position within the United Nations family through our co-sponsors allows us to create a bridge from local communities to the World Health Assembly, enabling the broadest possible scope of dialogue and debate across the spectrum of health research.
Our experience has shown the importance of cross-cutting, multisectoral and One Health approaches to tackling diseases. Maintaining our focus on human diseases, we will continue to engage health-related sectors such as water, agriculture, housing and education. We will work across silos applying systems thinking to understand the complex interactions between humans, animals and their shared environment in driving human diseases of poverty and seek solutions through multidisciplinary collaboration.
Our work reflects our core values of equity and sustainability. TDR strives to make research and innovation work for the benefit of the most neglected populations. This new strategy will lead to robust research evidence for innovations that improve their health and well-being.
We are also supporting researchers to apply an intersectional gender lens to infectious diseases by exploring links between health-related social inequities and solutions that enhance equality in access to health care. We will take holistic approaches, considering and addressing conditions such as noncommunicable diseases where they intersect with infectious diseases.
This strategy includes our criteria for supporting research activities and the ways in which we will monitor and evaluate our work. An updated results framework with key performance indicators will accompany this strategy. This will include measurement of impact, such as when research projects supported by TDR inform policy or practice in countries to tackle infectious diseases of poverty.
The 2024–2029 strategy will set the course for TDR to build on its past to address current and future challenges and build capacity and resilience through country-led responses.
