Annual report 2021: Global engagement

Overview

An essential part of the work of the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) is to engage with the global health community to promote and facilitate the role of research for development and to advocate for the use of high-quality evidence to inform policy. TDR is at the interface between research and health care delivery and is embedded within the United Nations (UN) family through its co-sponsors: the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO). This unique position allows TDR to create a bridge from local communities to the World Health Assembly, which offers the broadest possible scope of dialogue and debate across the spectrum of health research – from priority setting to evidence-based policy-making at local, national, regional and global levels. 

As part of TDR’s strategy 2018–2023, the activities under Knowledge Management and Collaborative Networks and Engagement, as well as TDR Global and the Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI), and effective engagement in gender and equity, are grouped together under Global Engagement (GE) in the Director’s office. The Global Engagement area of work also includes TDR’s collaboration with key global health stakeholders within the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as research activities of WHO headquarters and regional offices. The TDR-hosted Secretariat of the ESSENCE on Health Research initiative is also part of the Global Engagement workstream. 

The overall TDR programme budget workplan for 2020–2021 (including GE activities) was reviewed and approved by the TDR Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) in March 2019 and the Joint Coordinating Board (JCB) in June 2019.