Development assistance and research capacity strengthening: the commissioning of health research in East Africa.

Research capacity strengthening (RCS) is a key strategy to address the problem of health inequity and development. In spite of policy statements on capacity development and North-South partnerships among commissioning and donor agencies, most RCS initiatives operate on the conventional supply-driven, expatriate-led, short-term project, technical cooperation model which has proved ineffective in building institutional capacity and sustaining research environments. This paper analyzes the political economy of health research commissioning among bilateral, multilateral, non-governmental and philanthropic organizations, using East Africa as a case study. Instead of conventionally focusing on recipient countries and institutions, we look at the policies and practices of donor and commissioning agencies and the relationship they have with key stakeholders like Southern research institutions.