ESSENCE membership

ESSENCE members embrace the principles of donor harmonization and country alignment expressed in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and in the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action. According to these principles, donors/funders align and harmonize their activities and procedures with national priorities to better streamline efforts aimed to support efficient and targeted capacity building.

ESSENCE members include some of the top funders of health research around the world. They represent health research funding agencies, international health institutions, government research agencies, development organizations, philanthropists and multilateral initiatives. This broad range of individuals and organizations are drawn from low-, middle- and high-income countries and collaborate on information sharing, the development of good practices in health research funding and ultimately contribute to the upstreaming of these good practices into improved health policies.

Other stakeholders participating in ESSENCE collaboration are:

  • any parties interested in the objectives of ESSENCE;
  • participants in country pilot sessions;
  • national, regional and global health academies; and
  • local NGOs, philanthropy groups and other in-country development partners.

Scope of ESSENCE collaboration

ESSENCE on Health Research initiative provides an opportunity for all stakeholders to focus on “Research for health that can be improved through coordinated efforts in research capacity strengthening for health in low- and middle-income countries.” ESSENCE members and partners share the primary objective to establish coordinated funding and an effective scope for health research that is aligned with national, cross-border and international priorities. This includes:

  • address research capacity needs as expressed by partner countries;
  • sharing research investment experience and lessons learned;
  • providing better mechanisms and innovative platforms for funding alignment;
  • developing improved methodologies, and monitoring and evaluation indicators to track the impact of investment in capacity development; and
  • generating evidence and documentation on good practices in health research for development.

Organizations currently involved with ESSENCE

Agencies currently involved with ESSENCE are based all around the world: