In a bid to develop and strengthen the culture of research in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the health workers from different units of the Ministry attended a capacity building training in operational research held at Sky Mountain in Leribe from January 17 to 20^th , 2012.

The training was coordinated by Research Unit of the Ministry in collaboration with the National TB Programme (NTP) and there was a cost sharing approach whereby Millennium Challenge Account (MCA Health) through the HSS firm supported the Ministry with a consultant and accommodation for the participants and remaining costs were covered through Global Fund Round 8 grant. The NTP  Manager Dr. Llang Maama said the objective of R8 TB is to capacitate NTP staff to conduct operational research on key TB issues in order to address any challenges with a view to improve programme outcome and performance.

Participants were drawn from Directorate of Disease Control which includes the National TB Programme (NTP), HIV & AIDS Programme and International Health Regulation (IHR), Family Health Division (FHD), Environmental Health Division, Clinical Services, and Social Welfare Department. At least 10 participants were drawn from Directorate of Disease control.

Caption: Staff from disease control also attended the operational research training at Leribe. On the right is the group presentations of participants

At the end of the training, each unit came up with a research topic and full proposal on a chosen topic.  Dr. Maama said through R8 TB grant, NTP has a funding support to one operational research annually. She said the interest of NTP programme at the moment is to conduct study in order to assess factors contributing failure to evaluate all registered TB patients. The hypothesis to be tested here will be whether evaluating all enrolled TB patients will improves TB Treatment Success Rate.

In an interview with a Health Strengthening System (HSS) Training Advisor from MCA Health Dr. Bastiaan Remmelzwaal indicated that the culture of health research is currently weak within the Lesotho Health System hence The training health workers on Operational Research.

He said through research, the management could be able to make informed decisions in solving some of the existing challenges within the programmes and come up with recommendations to improve and strengthen the health systems in the country.