Checklists of good practices and recommendations for developing national policies and agendas on research for health. Second edition

This publication is aimed at stakeholders involved in planning, developing, implementing, and updating national policies and agendas on research and innovation for health. It includes updated versions of the checklists first published in 2022 to guide the development of these national documents, aligned with the guiding principles and values of the Policy on Research for Health of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and with recognized good practices. 

The PAHO Policy on Research for Health was approved in 2009 for implementation in Member States and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PASB), and remains in force. Approval of the World Health Organization Strategy on Research for Health, in 2010, was another landmark. Since then, many countries have issued similar policy documents, which need to be updated as circumstances and governments change, serving to strengthen health research systems, governance, and the impact of research for health. 

Following the recommendations by the PAHO Advisory Committee on Health Research, PASB mapped national policies and agendas on research for health and reported to PAHO's Governing Bodies. It also assessed national policies and agendas on research for health in the Region of the Americas in 2019. The updated map of national research policies and agendas can be consulted on the PAHO website. These checklists offer a practical tool to expedite updates of already existing national policies and agendas, and the development of future national policies and agendas aligned with regional and global policy frameworks that are grounded in the guiding principles of impact, quality, inclusiveness and communication, and accessibility.