The 1st Core Group Meeting

Overview

The WHO Centre for Health Development (WHO Kobe Centre: WKC) convened the first core group meeting of the WHO Thematic Platform for Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Research Network (TPRN) on 17-18 October 2019 in Kobe, Japan. The meeting was a key milestone in advancing the field of health emergency and disaster risk management (Health EDRM) through research. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the broader health EDRM research agenda and to agree upon a process to finalize and update the WHO Health EDRM Global Research Agenda (referred to as Research Agenda). Twenty-two participants attended the meeting, including WHO HQ Focal Points from WKC and WHO Health Emergency Programme (WHE), WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), WHO Regional Office for Europe (EURO), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the co-chairs of the TPRN, and other key stakeholders in Health EDRM research, policy, and practice. The process to build the Health EDRM global research agenda was guided by WHO guidance on establishing research agendas, and the ongoing work of the TPRN in establishing a research agenda for Health EDRM.

This first meeting of the core group reviewed the results of 2018 Kobe Expert Meeting on key research questions of Health EDRM and consulted the experts on further recommendations for the research themes, key stakeholders, and operation of TPRN for effective contribution to systematic improvement of scientific evidence through global collaboration.

At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed upon a process for developing the WHO Health EDRM research agenda, including key milestones. It was recognized that this process should take account existing WHO and global research activities, and should be framed within the wider global Health EDRM research strategy, activities and priorities. Key steps in the process of developing the WHO Health EDRM research agenda include:

1. Gather information on existing Health EDRM research programmes and agendas.
2. Finalize criteria for prioritizing research themes and questions.
3. Finalize a list of stakeholders to be consulted.
4. Conduct surveys and other consultative methods with key stakeholders to identify research needs
5. Establish a process and working groups for reviewing results of the surveys.
6. Draft a research agenda to address identified needs under each theme (preliminary research areas to be referred to section 4)
7. Conduct a peer-review through global consultation
8. Publish and disseminate the finalized research agenda
9. Monitoring the progress and update the research agenda every two years.