Gooding Kate
Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi.
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2017 May 4;15(1):38. doi: 10.1186/s12961-017-0199-3.
There has been growing interest in the contribution of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to international health research. One strength that NGOs may bring to research involves the potential value of service delivery experience for indicating relevant research questions, namely through their involvement in service delivery, NGO staff may be aware of frontline knowledge gaps, allowing these staff to identify questions that lead to research with immediate relevance. However, there is little empirical evidence on research agendas within NGOs to assess whether their service delivery experience does lead to relevant research or conditions that affect this. This article examines the identification and selection of research questions within NGOs to explore the role of their service delivery experience in generating relevant research agendas.
The article reports comparative case study research on four NGOs in Malawi, including two international and two Malawian organisations. Each NGO conducts research and undertakes service delivery and advocacy. Data collection included interviews, focus groups, observation and document review. Analysis involved thematic coding and use of diagrams.
The case NGOs' experiences suggest that using service delivery to identify research questions does not always match NGOs' aims or capacities, and does not guarantee relevance. First, NGOs do not want to rely only on service delivery when developing research agendas; they consider other criteria and additional sources of ideas when selecting questions they see as relevant. Second, service delivery staff are not always well-placed to identify research topics; indeed, involvement in hectic, target-driven service delivery can hinder input to research agendas. Third, NGOs' ability to pursue questions inspired by service delivery depends on control over their research agendas; relationships with external actors and financial autonomy affect NGOs' capacity to undertake the research they see as relevant. Finally, the perceived relevance of research findings varies between audiences and depends on more than the research question.
The findings suggest limits to the value and feasibility of a research agenda based on service delivery experience. Based on the analysis, the conclusion outlines strategies to support an effective role for NGOs' service delivery experience in development of research agendas.
非政府组织（NGO）对国际卫生研究的贡献越来越受到关注。NGO在研究中可能具有的一个优势是，其服务提供经验在指明相关研究问题方面具有潜在价值，也就是说，通过参与服务提供，NGO工作人员可能会意识到一线的知识空白，从而使这些工作人员能够识别出具有直接相关性的研究问题。然而，关于NGO内部的研究议程，几乎没有实证证据来评估其服务提供经验是否确实能带来相关研究或影响这一过程的条件。本文研究了NGO内部研究问题的识别与选择，以探讨其服务提供经验在制定相关研究议程中的作用。
本文报告了对马拉维四个NGO的比较案例研究，其中包括两个国际组织和两个马拉维组织。每个NGO都开展研究、提供服务并进行宣传倡导。数据收集包括访谈、焦点小组讨论、观察和文件审查。分析采用主题编码和图表运用。
案例中的NGO经验表明，利用服务提供来识别研究问题并不总是与NGO的目标或能力相匹配，也不能保证其相关性。首先，NGO在制定研究议程时并不想仅仅依赖服务提供；在选择他们认为相关的问题时，他们会考虑其他标准和额外的思路来源。其次，服务提供人员并不总是能够很好地确定研究主题；事实上，参与繁忙的、以目标为导向的服务提供可能会阻碍对研究议程的投入。第三，NGO追求受服务提供启发的问题的能力取决于对其研究议程的控制；与外部行为体的关系和财务自主性会影响NGO开展他们认为相关的研究的能力。最后，研究结果在不同受众眼中的相关性各不相同，且不仅仅取决于研究问题。
研究结果表明，基于服务提供经验的研究议程在价值和可行性方面存在局限性。基于分析，结论概述了一些策略，以支持NGO的服务提供经验在研究议程制定中发挥有效作用。
