Background and issues to be addressed
With the Arab spring, major political changes are happening. Millions have moved to the streets to demand change to the status quo. Regime change is underway in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Several other countries are engulfed in mass protests. People have called for freedom, democracy and equitable development based on justice and rights including better health and social services.[1] Research for Health (R4H) has the obligation to respond to these demands.

R4H is essential to developing solutions that contribute to health improvements[2] and to policy changes promoting equity.[3] Investments in research, including R4H, contribute to health[4] and economic growth.[5] Well-structured, coordinated and sustainable national research systems are needed to foster development of relevant R4H. Before the recent political changes, most countries in the Arab region did not prioritize research, science and innovation as key to their development.

In the Arab world, weaknesses of R4H are seen in three areas:

• Low investment in research and development

Despite small progress in advancing research and development, the Arab region still lags far behind other regions in investments in science, technology and innovation.[6]

• Weak national R4H systems

A study of national health research systems (NHRS) of ten Arab countries of various levels of development and resources found that “few countries have formal NRHS…there is considerable fragmentation and limited coordination in the system”. [7] Only three countries have set national health research priorities. A similar study in three other Arab countries, reported the same findings.[8] Arab countries have not produced a critical mass of well qualified researchers in the majority of disciplines, including health, and there is little or no coordination at the national level between research communities[9] and across disciplines.

• Production and impact

As a result of low investment and weak systems, scientific production is weak,[10] with Libya experiencing negative publication growth[11]. Research productivity is particularly weak in the area of policy and health systems research.[12]

Political changes in many countries in the Arab world provide an opportunity to renew interest in research, science and innovation. Research is needed to address popular demands for more accountability, for better health, for equity, and for overall development. Knowledge is needed to provide guidance to new leaders to develop knowledge societies.

For these knowledge societies to be created, research and science governance structures need to be improved, so that research and innovation can flourish. This is the opportunity to do things differently. At this crucial time, first, we need to underpin the Arab Spring with science, health research – improving the evidence-based culture of policy making and, at the same time, use the opportunity it creates to push for health, equity and development through ‘research and innovation for health’. But, secondly, it is also very important that there is the risk of the gains of the Arab Spring being lost because of continued lack of economic opportunities related to the current difficult global economic circumstances.

Partners interested in these issues
 Three institutions are partnering to engage in debate on research, science and innovation opportunities created by the Arab spring. These institutions are well positioned to work with key stakeholders to lead this process.

The Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) Group, which includes the Global Forum for Health Research, has been involved in capacity building in the Arab countries since 2004 in collaboration with the Research Policy and Cooperation (RPC) Unit of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (WHO/EMRO). Between 2004 and 2009, the RPC/EMRO and COHRED, working with partners such as the Health Ministers Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council states (GCC), have carried out three studies to assess research systems for health in almost 20 countries of the region.

The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) of the American University of Beirut (AUB), has a long history of work, and impact, in the region through collaborative research, advocacy and networking for health, education, short-term training of health professionals and public health practice.

There are clear complementarities between the partners: COHRED and RPC/EMRO are ‘enabling’ organizations – supporting actors like FHS/AUB to do what they are good at. COHRED works globally on governance issues at the country level, while RPC/EMRO is currently leading the EMRO strategy for research for health and can bring technical assistance to countries. The FHS/AUB is an academic institution with excellent capacities that is attuned to the realities, resources and needs of the region.^[i]

This approach of collaborative work is original and comes at a unique moment where synergies are coherently used to raise awareness about low research investments and outputs and propose a way forward to address the know-do gap in R4H.

The proposed collaborative work
The overall objective of the proposed meeting is to discuss how best to use the current political and societal opportunities presented by the recent changes in the Arab region to strengthen research, science and innovation for health.

The output of this meeting will be:

• A call for action to strengthen system capacity for research and innovation for health

• A summary view of the various inputs that participants prepare before the meeting
• A communication strategy to disseminate and keep this alive until the regional conference
• A conference plan for 2013/2014

At the long term following the meeting:

• A platform is established that facilitates regular interaction between the partners in the region to discuss challenges and opportunities for advancing research and innovation for health in the region.
• Financial resources for the above are becoming available to countries and regional partners to strengthen R4H systems.