The theme of this year’s symposium is “Speeding up Progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #3 with New Knowledge, Innovation, and Partnerships.”  SDG #3 aims to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all of all ages.  The symposium will focus on three sub-themes: 1) supporting universal health coverage; 2) improving maternal and newborn health; and 3) reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases.

In her remarks, Ms. Davis reiterated the importance of quality, evidence-based health research.  She also encouraged all present to move beyond discussions to application, stating that the U.S. Government is “fully committed to supporting Ghana’s vision to finance its own development.  Applying rigorous and reliable data to shape programs ensures the efficient use of funds and, most importantly, saves lives.” 

USAID builds the capacity of Ghanaian health research institutions to design, implement, document, publish, and share their original health research findings.  Based on a recommendation from the 2017 National Health Research Symposium, USAID supported the Ghana Health Service to create a “Knowledge Translation Platform” intended to move research to policy and, ultimately, to practice. The platform works through communities of practice to conduct systematic reviews of available research on key health issues and to draft policy and programming recommendations to address those issues.