Association Burkinabè de Fundraising

TDR, the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, hosted at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, is pleased to announce a call for applications to stimulate an intersectional gender approach in the implementation of infectious diseases research.

This call aims to strengthen an intersectional gender perspective in implementation research in order to contribute to the implementation of the TDR's intersectional gender research strategy.

The overall aim of this work is to conduct implementation research studies to generate evidence that helps to identify catalysts and bottlenecks that impact on the delivery of health interventions. This includes: generating evidence on how gender intersects with other social variables affected by specific contextual and structural factors, influencing access to health systems, health care and treatment; and intersectional analysis of gender in implementation research to generate new evidence and knowledge on the intersections of gender and other social variables that influence the functioning of implementation strategies.

Activities carried out as part of proposals submitted must include a full research protocol with national ethics granted or with the potential for ethics approval in the near future. Any proposed research activity would require national ethical approvals or an indication that has already been submitted to national ethics committees.

Areas of intervention

The proposed studies may cover at least two of the following areas:

• The research aimed to identify bottlenecks that impact on access to interventions and health service delivery, generating evidence on how gender intersects with other social variables, influencing access to healthcare and treatment, through implementation research. This research can include case studies of how gender intersects with other social variables in access to healthcare and treatment for malaria and other infectious diseases of poverty, particularly for population subgroups such as adolescent populations, the elderly and young pregnant women.
• Conduct intersectional gender analysis in implementation research to generate new evidence and knowledge about the intersections of gender and other social variables that influence how implementation strategies work.
• How, why and for whom implementation research strategies work, taking into account an intersectional gender approach and a health systems perspective.
• Identify how evidence-based interventions, tools and services should be modified or adapted to achieve sustainable health outcomes in real-world settings
• Determine the best way to introduce practical solutions into healthcare systems and facilitate their implementation, evaluation and large-scale modification
• Evidence of what works, what doesn't and what opportunities exist at community level to improve the participation of older people, adolescents and pregnant and breastfeeding women in treatment programmes, and increase their access to healthcare.
• Study the intersection of sex and gender with other social stratifiers to understand marginalisation and disadvantage in access to health systems, services and interventions. Research the intersection of gender and other axes of inequality in the provision of and access to prevention and control approaches and products to prevent and control infectious diseases.
• To examine the ways in which underlying gender power relations can be challenged and progressively altered during the process of implementation research. How to optimise health interventions in conditions of structural violence where the most vulnerable people live with a high burden of infectious disease.

Information on financing

• Proposals will be considered for a total of funding total of up to 196,000 $ US, supporting a maximum of 2 applications.
• The duration of the award will be 12 months with an estimated start date in February 2022.

Eligibility criteria

• This research is selective in nature. It aims to identify single established research groups or institutions with expertise and experience in implementation, health systems, gender, intersectionality and infectious disease research that would benefit from a new influx of funding to advance their research work.
• The TDR is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion in science. Researchers are encouraged to apply regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religious, cultural and social background or (disability) status.
• Where data is included, it should be disaggregated at least by sex and age (and other social stratifiers where appropriate, for example, education level, income, self-reported gender identity, social status or (disability) where possible).
• Plans to ensure sex- and age-disaggregated data and sex-analysed data must be clearly stated in the research application and taken into account from the earliest stages of the project design process.
• Grants will be awarded to the beneficiary research institution where the principal investigator(s) is/are based.

For more information, please visit WHO .