2 Based on the findings of the literature search and gaps identified, come up with a survey
questionnaire tool that can be used at the Regional Consultation Meeting to complete the picture of regional situational analysis
This document presents the results of the literature review.
3
2.Methodology
2.1 Coverage of Literature Review
The literature reviewed includes:
a. Journal articles relevant to any of the 8 elements and 25 sub-elements of the GSPA-PHI; b. Reports of meetings held at the global, regional and national levels on areas which are
either related solely to the GSPA-PHI, or where GSPA-PHI. Uploaded files of presentations made during these meetings; and
c. Reports of commissioned studies related to various aspects of GSPA-PHI Since the GSPA-PHI is a WHA Resolution, the first step taken in searching for the above documents
was to access the websites of the following:
a. WHOHQ as well as those of the regional offices.. b. Special programmesprojectsinitiatives based in WHO which are related to GSPA-PHI like
TDR, COHRED, IVR and HINARI, c. Non-WHO-based programmes, initiatives, organizations, networks involved in activities
related to GSPA-PHI like PATH, BRICS, DNDi, ASEAN-NDI, etc. Additional literature not posted in the above mentioned websites were searched using the
following search engines:
a. BioMedSearch.com – a biomedical search engine.;
b. PLOS Medicine – An open access weekly journal for peer-reviewed literature; and
c. Google Scholar – Searches articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional
societies, preprint repositories and universities., Included in the search were literatures which were published or which referred to activities which
were implemented from 2008 onwards. Exceptions were materials which serve as the foundation of succeeding activities like the documentation of the COHRED assessment tools for national
health research systems which were developed earlier than 2008. A documentation of a conference on Human Resources for Health Research held in Africa in 2006 was also included since
this was the only conference conducted covering this topic. All materials retrieved were first sorted according to the 8 elements of the GSPA-PHI, and then
further according to the 25 sub-elements. Within each sub-element, a third layer of categorization was applied according to geographic area of coverage of the initiative or activity regional or
global.
4 For purposes of this paper, the following definitions were used:
a. Regional – this category was considered as synonymous to the South East Asian Region
SEAR, as defined by WHO. It refers to any activity conducted at the regional level within SEAR, or involving any of the 11 member states of the region. Hence, under this definition,
activities of ASEAN related to GSPA-PHI are considered as regional since 3 of the ASEAN- member countries Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar are SEAR Member States.
b. Global – this category was considered as synonymous to non-SEAR. It refers to any activity
conducted in regions other than SEAR, or involving a country which is not a SEAR member state. It includes activities at the global, regional and national levels.
As expected, not sufficient documents were found as a result it was deemed necessary to supplement the literature review with a survey questionnaire, completed by Member States and
research institutions, to a get a true sense of the status of various elements of GSPA-PHI. The results of this survey are presented in another report
2.2 Limitations
The project covered an extremely wide scope -- 25 sub-elements classified into regional and global, or 50 sub-topics altogether. It was difficult to do a complete and comprehensive review of
documents for about 50 sub-topics within the 6 months allotted for the project. A very evident overlapping was seen with respect of both the sub-elements as well as the literature
covered. This overlapping may have led to either omission or an over representation of facts. At the regional level, there is bias towards the bigger countries, specifically India and Thailand,
because these are the countries which are good in documenting and disseminating their activities. Hence most of the literature retrieved at the regional level referred to these countries. This bias is
counteracted by including the activities identified in the country reports presented during the Regional Meeting for Assessment of Progress in Implementing the GSPA-PHI held in Bangkok on
December 16-18, 2014.
