Assessing the outputs, impact and value of investments in malaria research and development

Abstract

Malaria is a major public health challenge, causing disease, disability and death in low and middle income countries. Over 3 billion people, almost half the world’s population, are at risk from the disease and more than 445,000 die each year, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and mainly children. New technologies and innovations such as longer lasting bed nets and new drug therapies are making faster progress possible. Research is a critical component of this process. While there are several methodologies and frameworks to assess research impact, to date there have been no systematic global estimates on the rate of return or ‘payback’ from investment in malaria research. Such estimates could potentially be vital for justifying continuing expenditure on research in the face of increasing competing demands for the use of scarce research resources. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the international evidence base by exploring methods and frameworks for assessing the impact of health research in the poorest countries, with a particular focus on malaria. This thesis highlights the importance of understanding what works in measuring research impact and a key methodological contribution is to show how various methods and techniques can be applied to the area of antimalarial medicines research. We reflect on the extent to which these novel applications can act as exemplars for further work, which could potentially consider the whole area of malaria research including vaccines and prevention technologies. It is hoped this work will help inform future approaches to monitoring and evaluation of the impact and value of all development interventions and programmes