Health Systems Research Unit

Director: Prof Charles Hongoro
E-mail: charles.hongoro@mrc.ac.za

Mandate of the Unit
The main purpose of the unit is to conduct health systems research to develop and improve the organisation, efficiency, effectiveness and impact of health systems on population health.

What we do
The Health Systems Research Unit (HSRU) is at the forefront of conducting both qualitative and quantitative health systems research in South Africa and across the continent. The unit focuses on producing publications in peer and non-peer reviewed journals, policy advising at a national and international level, and capacity building largely in terms of post-graduate training (MSc and PhDs).

Most of the Unit’s work is based on priority health systems issues: service delivery (e.g. Maternal, New born and Child Health, HIV and AIDS, PMTCT evaluation, HIV prevention trials (Options & PREPARE) amongst adolescents; development of surveillance systems for monitoring HIV in high risk populations using respondent-driven sampling; TB (integration of services); human resources for health (e.g. community lay workers and HR planning models); health financing (e.g. district expenditure reviews and budgeting, national health insurance preparatory and implementation research); systematic reviews on priority health issues; development of systems for data collection; collation and use at district or PHC level and many others.

With regards to service delivery, the Unit has deliberately focused on the district health system particularly looking at service delivery models and programme effectiveness using national surveys, community randomised control trials and innovative qualitative research methods. The Unit is also developing a body of research work on the proposed National Health Insurance to inform the design and refinement of NHI and evaluation of its multiple interventions.

In addition to the funding we receive from the national government, we are successful in mobilising external funds to conduct our research. Over the past two financial years (2009-2010 and 2010-2011), external funds amounted to approximately ZAR 30million per annum, from a diverse group of funders such as the Centres for Disease Control, UNICEF, NEPAD, Atlantic Philanthropy, DFID, Save the Children US, and HSLP. The international recognition of our work is reflected in commissioned work for the World Health Organisation and partnerships with various prestige academic and research institutions.