Plan Stratégique National de la Recherche pour la Santé

Objectives

The National Strategic Plan for Health Research 2020–2023 provides Senegal’s framework for governing, planning, supporting and implementing health research, aligned with the National Health and Social Development Plan 2019–2028, the Senegal Emerging Plan and the World Health Organization African regional health-research strategy for 2016–2025. It seeks a participatory, inclusive, productive and resilient national system that generates scientific knowledge for health policies, strategies and practice, contributes to universal health coverage and Sustainable Development Goal 3, and improves wellbeing across the life course.[1][2][3][4]

• Establish a functional national health-research system integrating governance, coordination, management and implementation, with research responding to community and health-system needs rather than principally external priorities.[5][6][7]
• Improve governance through strategic planning, leadership, coordination, regulation, partnerships, multisectoral collaboration, knowledge management and the use of findings in decision-making.[8][9]
• Strengthen ethical, legal and rights-protective research by reinforcing ethics review, informed consent, privacy, scientific integrity and intellectual-property protection.[10][7][11]
• Build individual, organisational and institutional capacity for the full research cycle, including priority-setting, protocol development, implementation, analysis, publication, dissemination and capitalisation of results.[12][13]
• Develop operational research and an evaluative culture to strengthen health governance, assess emerging challenges and support evidence-informed policies, programmes and care practices.[14][1][15]
• Consolidate and disseminate research outputs through centralised repositories, digital archiving, accessible reports, guidance documents, policy briefs, scientific publications and national research-sharing forums.[5][16][17]
• Maintain a consensual and periodically updated national list of research priorities covering population health and the health system, while retaining scope for innovative research of global interest.[18][19]
• Increase sustainable domestic and external resource mobilisation, with strategic objectives to improve financing, reduce dependence on external funders and improve transparency in the management of research resources.[20][3][11]

Implementation

Implementation uses results-based management, guided by participation, multisectoral and transdisciplinary collaboration, accountability, transparency, adaptability, effectiveness and efficiency. The plan is to be operationalised through five-year strategic planning, annual work plans, a costed business plan, coordination and regulatory bodies, implementing institutions, and programmed monitoring and evaluation.[10][9][19][4]

• Lead national coordination through the Ministry of Health and Social Action, particularly the Directorate of Planning, Research and Statistics and its Research Division, which coordinates research, issues administrative authorisations, follows protocols and supports communication with researchers and sponsors.[21][22]
• Coordinate implementation centrally through the Directorate of Planning, Research and Statistics and health programmes, and regionally through Regional Health and Social Action Directorates, supported by weekly directorate meetings, thematic programme research groups, a national multisectoral committee and regional coordination meetings.[23]
• Strengthen regulatory oversight through the National Ethics Committee for Health Research, the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority, the Personal Data Protection Commission, and national biosafety bodies. The ethics committee assesses and follows health-research protocols, while the pharmacy directorate regulates relevant clinical-trial, medicine and product requirements.[24][21][25][26]
• Revise the ethics framework and implementing decree, modernise and digitise ethics-committee procedures and tools, strengthen committee capacity, and establish or integrate institutional ethics committees in universities and research institutions.[7][11][27][28]
• Deliver research through institutes, centres, research groups, universities, national health programmes, regional and district health teams, communities, civil society, non-governmental organisations and private health-sector actors.[24][15][26][29]
• Formalise collaboration between the ministry, research institutions, universities, health programmes and relevant regulators through agreements or protocols covering protocol submission, completed-study reporting and the sharing of research-financing information.[30][31]
• Build capacity through operational-research methodology and protocol-development workshops, training in ethics, scientific writing, grant applications, knowledge management and dissemination, support for early-career researchers, updated methodological guidance and strengthened research infrastructure.[20][12][32]
• Map research institutions, researchers, protocol repositories and available capacities; create databases and virtual platforms for protocols, reports, theses and financial information; and connect these systems with the Ministry’s central library, the ethics committee and relevant electronic platforms.[33][17][13]
• Use annual operational and financial reviews, annual reports from implementing institutions to the Research Division, internal monitoring committees, joint monitoring missions and annual reviews to oversee delivery. The plan provides for a mid-term evaluation in 2022 and final evaluation in 2023, alongside performance indicators and an implementation, monitoring and evaluation plan.[29][34][35][4]
• Mobilise financing through domestic budget advocacy, health-ministry and university support, territorial authorities, private-sector and corporate-social-responsibility contributions, technical and financial partners, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, research networks and competitive calls for proposals. The plan advocates allocating 2% of the national health budget and 5% of external health financing to research, while its total cost is estimated at 3,319,966,800 CFA francs for 2020–2023.[36][37][4]

Monitoring & Evaluation

The plan establishes a results-based monitoring and evaluation system for Senegal’s health-research sector, combining annual operational planning and reporting, protocol tracking, financial monitoring, periodic reviews, and mid-term and final evaluations.[34][35][4]It also treats ethical oversight, research regulation, knowledge management and the practical use of evidence as core accountability functions.[21][10]

• Monitor implementation through annual operational plans, internal monitoring by responsible entities, and indicators and tracer interventions within a performance framework.[34]
• Require coordinating bodies and implementing institutions to submit annual reports to the Research Division, with reporting obligations incorporated into agreements with the Ministry of Health and Social Action.[34]
• Track activity execution, disbursement and justification rates, alongside annual programme and financial reviews organised by the Research Division.[34][35]
• Conduct a mid-term evaluation in 2022 using programme and financial monitoring, annual reports and supporting documents, potentially with consultant support under terms of reference prepared by the Research Division.[35]
• Conduct a final evaluation in 2023 alongside the mid-term review of the National Health Development Plan, while preparing the subsequent 2024–2028 strategic plan.[4]
• Use internal monitoring committees, joint monitoring missions, regional coordination meetings and joint annual reviews to support national and operational-level follow-up.[34]
• Develop an annual reporting template, configure research-sensitive indicators in the District Health Information Software 2 dashboard where feasible, and establish a research-for-health information system linking implementing actors.[38][34]
• Centralise protocols submitted to the National Health Research Ethics Committee and record each study through completion, alongside completed research reports and information on sponsors and mobilised resources.[39][35]
• Use annual national research-sharing forums, electronic platforms, policy briefs and accessible guidance documents to monitor dissemination and uptake of findings in policies, protocols and care practices.[5][3][35]
• Maintain ethical and regulatory accountability through National Health Research Ethics Committee review and follow-up of protocols, pharmaceutical regulation, personal-data protection and biosafety oversight.[21][25][26]
• Track implementation targets in the results framework through Research Directorate reports, including thematic-group functionality, regulatory reforms, ethics-committee capacity, databases, forums, partnerships and multisectoral coordination.[27][28][40]

Several weaknesses constrain accountability: past semi-annual and annual reviews were not sufficiently substantive; research may become invisible when combined with routine programme monitoring and evaluation; and financial data remain fragmented across programmes, institutions and partners.[41][38][33]Although the plan provides performance indicators and an implementation, monitoring and evaluation plan for 2020–2023, the supplied material does not set out a complete consolidated indicator list, baselines, targets, reporting frequency or sanctions for non-performance.[4]

Costing & Financing

The National Strategic Plan for Health Research 2020–2023 is costed at 3,319,966,800 CFA francs for the four-year period and is intended to identify the resources required to address weaknesses in the national health-research system.[1][4]Financing policy emphasises greater domestic mobilisation, more effective access to external funding and transparent tracking of research resources.[20][3]

• Mobilise domestic resources through advocacy with the Ministry of Health and Social Action, territorial authorities, universities, health development committees and the private sector.[36]
• Seek external support through bilateral and multilateral partners, international initiatives and competitive grants, while improving researchers’ proposal-writing capacity and managers’ negotiation skills.[20][38]
• Advocate for allocating 2% of the national health budget to health research and 5% of external health financing or health-programme resources to research.[36]
• Establish or reactivate dedicated financing mechanisms, including a research-coordination credit line, annual ministry support for research centres and institutes, and a health-research impetus fund within universities.[42][32][37]
• Separate research expenditure from evaluation and training within ministry, programme and partner budgets, and create a national digital system for collecting financial data on health research.[38][35]
• Present a business plan to public authorities, technical and financial partners and the private sector following validation, to support implementation financing.[4]

Available evidence indicates substantial dependence on external finance, estimated at 85.6% of declared external funding in 2019 and approximately 86% of research financing in a separate assessment.[20][31]The source identifies inadequate domestic funding, limited private-sector participation, difficulty accessing financial information, and non-implementation of international allocation commitments as key constraints.[41][42][38][31]Historical financing needs for the 2004–2008 strategic research plan exceeded four billion CFA francs.[42]Detailed allocations, financing shares, a current quantified funding gap and economic assumptions are not specified beyond the overall 2020–2023 plan cost.[4]