Establishing Research Priorities for Malaria Elimination in the Context of the Emergency Response to Artemisinin Resistance Framework‑the Cambodian Approach

For which topic were research priorities identified?

Malaria elimination

In which location was the research priority setting conducted?

Asia - Cambodia

Why was it conducted at all?

Countries of the greater Mekong subregion have made a transition from malaria control to an aim for falciparum and vivax malaria elimination. The elimination of falciparum malaria will have to be achieved against a background of increasing artemisinin and multi-drug resistance. This ambitious goal requires an operational research (OR) agenda that addresses the dynamic challenges encountered on the path to elimination, which will need to be flexible and developed in close relation with the Cambodian national programme for parasitology, entomology and malaria control (CNM).

What was the objective?

to identify operational challenges, bottlenecks and priority research questions in the transition from malaria control towards elimination

What was the outcome?

a ranking list of 17 research questions

How long did the research prioritization take?

2 days, June 2014

Which methods were used to identify research priorities?

workshop

How were the priorities for research identified exactly?

Step 1: literature review/landscape analysis: to gather all past, on-going and planned malaria focussed OR activities, resulting in 6 themes. Step 2: workshop 1: participants were allocated to working groups under one of the six thematic areas, participants were asked to develop a shortlist of prioritized questions in each theme, participants were asked to rate questions across themes according to agreed prioritization criteria. Step 3: workshop 2: results of the rating were reviewed to obtain consensus on a list of priority topics which were then translated into corresponding research questions

Which stakeholders took part?

NGOs, academics, private sector, donors, policymakers, Ministry of Health

How were stakeholders recruited?

The Ministry of Health of Cambodia, with technical assistance and support by WHO-ERAR, held a workshop with the members of the CRC, which includes various national and international partners, stakeholders, NGOs and members of the Cam bodian provincial health teams.

Were stakeholders actively involved or did they just participate?

Stakeholders were mere participants of the research prioritization process; they were not actively involved in the process.