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The UK Department of Health and Social Care's aid-funded global health research and innovation

This review concludes that UK aid contributes positively to global health with results such as the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, but that more focus on achieving impact is needed.

13.04.26

Independent Commission for Aid Impact

Independent Commission for Aid Impact

2024

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This review concludes that UK aid contributes positively to global health with results such as the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, but that more focus on achieving impact is needed.

Findings

  • Global health research and innovation funded by the Department of Health and Social Care is largely relevant to the issues faced by poor people in low- and middle-income countries
  • We also found it effective, with successes such as the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, a welcome focus to underfunded areas such as mental health and pioneering community engagement in many cases.
  • DHSC’s programming aligns well with UK government strategies related to global health research, which prioritise economic and trade objectives alongside resilience to health threats such as pandemics.
  • However, DHSC does not always focus on research which could drive the greatest impact, such as evidence synthesis.
  • Transparency about programmes funded is patchy and reporting of results to ensure accountability for research impact is weak, considering the scale of the department’s official development assistance (ODA) spending.
  • If DHSC’s aid is to be most effective, it needs to be ‘untied’, allowing researchers in low and middle-income countries to choose partners from anywhere in the world, not just the UK.
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