Eighth National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal: abstract book

Abstract

Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) together with the Advisory Committee, the Steering Committee, the Scientific Committee and the Organizing Committee extend our warm welcome to the Eighth National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal. The Eighth National Summit is a continuum of previous summits as a part of our initiatives to promote research culture in the country. The primary purpose of the summit is to provide a platform for researchers and academicians to share recent and relevant health evidence; and policymakers to interact with researchers and academia to identify recent evidence. The summit also offers an opportunity for a diverse set of stakeholders (researchers, policymakers, representatives of civil society, regional and international organizations as well as non-governmental organizations) to explore ways and means of applying research evidence generated to improve the wellbeing of the Nepalese people. The Summit is themed with “Advancing Health Policy and System Research: Lessons for Resilient Health System in Nepal”. Health system resilience is key to learning lesson from country responses to Crisis such as COVID-19. The unprecedented healthcare demand due to sudden outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has almost collapsed the health care systems especially in the developing world including Nepal. A comprehensive analysis of the resilience of the health system during the pandemic can therefore pinpoint important lessons and help strengthen countries' preparedness, response, and approach to future health challenges. This summit has the unique opportunity to The summit will hold pre-summit, symposium, plenary and parallel sessions to discourse on available evidence on national health priorities through oral and poster presentation of selected abstracts as well as the invited presentations. We believe that the summit will have a significant contribution to generate evidence, which in turn provides an insight into the need for quality research in the country within the context of resilient health systems. Given the rich diversity of participants from academia, research institutes, government, NGO/ INGOs and external developmental partners, we also believe that the summit will also foster enduring partnership for innovation in all research and policy making in Nepal. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to researchers, policymakers, external development partners and related stakeholders for supporting us in organizing this summit. We look forward to your active engagement in the summit. Thank you. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of generating contextually tailored evidence through high-quality health policy and system research and their use in decision making thereby strengthening health systems resilience to tackle future pandemics, shocks and stressors to the system. Dr Pradip Gyanwali Executive Chief (Member-Secretary) Nepal Health Research Council Prof Dr Gehanath Baral Chairman Nepal Health Research Council facilitate discussion on health systems and policy research (HSPR), as well as its advancement, in order to accomplish communal health goals and construct a resilient health system.