Building capacity in tropical disease implementation research methods and ethics

April 2023, Cairo – A regional training workshop on implementation research methods and ethics was held by the WHO Regional Office and the TDR Regional Training Centre of the Institute Pasteur de Tunis, supported by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), from 25 to 28 January 2023 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The workshop aimed to enhance participants' skills in implementation research and help them improve their research proposals.

The workshop’s main objectives were to: introduce the concepts of implementation research as they apply to tropical diseases and other health conditions; apply basic statistical analytical techniques, interpretation and presentation of outcomes; and understand and observe ethical principles in the conduct of health research on human subjects.

Implementation research is conducted within routine systems and real-life settings, removed from the controlled situations associated with other types of scientific research.

The participants came from eight countries of the Region, including Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, the occupied Palestinian territory, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia. The facilitators were from the Institute Pasteur de Tunis, WHO Regional Office and the Tunisian Ministry of Health.