Operational research within a Global Fund supported tuberculosis project in India
Why, how and its contribution towards change in policy and practice
Abstract
Background
The Global Fund encourages operational research (OR) in all its grants; however very few reports describe this aspect. In India, Project Axshya was supported by a Global Fund grant to improve the reach and visibility of the government Tuberculosis (TB) services among marginalised and vulnerable communities. OR was incorporated to build research capacity of professionals working with the national TB programme and to generate evidence to inform policies and practices
Objectives
To describe how Project Axshya facilitated building OR capacity within the country, helped in addressing several TB control priority research questions, documented project activities and their outcomes, and influenced policy and practice.
Results
In the training courses, 44 participant teams were supported to develop research protocols on topics of national priority, resulting in 28 peer-reviewed scientific publications. The KAP surveys and description of project activities resulted in 14 peer-reviewed publications. Of the published papers at least 12 have influenced change in policy or practice.
Conclusions
OR within a Global Fund supported TB project has resulted in building OR capacity, facilitating research in areas of national priority and influencing policy and practice. We believe this experience will provide guidance for undertaking OR in Global Fund projects.
This research was supported by the UK Department for International Development’s Operational Research Capacity Building Programme led by the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union)
Citation
Sagili KD, Satyanarayana S, Chadha SS, Wilson NC, Kumar AM V, Moonan PK, Oeltmann JE, Chadha VK, Nagaraja SB, Ghosh S, Q Lo T, Volkmann T, Willis M, Shringarpure K, Reddy RC, Kumar P, Nair SA, Rao R, Yassin M, Mwangala P, Zachariah R, Tonsing J, Harries AD, Khaparde S. Operational research within a Global Fund supported tuberculosis project in India: why, how and its contribution towards change in policy and practice. Global Health Action. 2018;11(1):1445467.