Summary (English)

The World health report: research for universal health coverage focuses on the importance of research in advancing progress towards universal health coverage. In addition, it identifies the benefits of increased investment in health research by low- and middle-income countries using case studies from around the world, and proposes ways to further strengthen this type of research.

The report is organized in five chapters: Chapter 1 focuses on the role of research for universal health coverage, defining universal health coverage and discussing practical ways to measure progress towards this goal. Chapter 2 hightlights the growth of research for universal health coverage, providing an overview of the changing landscape of research. On Chapter 3 - How research contributes to universal health coverage, the report presents a set of 12 case-studies from different countries, while Chapter 4 focuses on building research systems for universal health coverage, elaborating on how to create effective health research systems and on the functions these research systems need to carry out.

Finally, Chapter 5 - Action on research for universal health coverage, highlights the dominant themes of the report and proposes a set of actions – first, on the conduct of research, with a focus on national health research systems and second, to support research nationally and internationally. As part of the narrative, the chapter also outlines WHO’s role in supporting these actions, based on the Organization’s Strategy on Research for Health.