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Background: Palliative care (PC) research in Africa has been proposed as a fifth dimension of the World Health Organization PC Public Health Strategy. We conducted a scoping review of published articles (2005-2016) on palliative care development (PCD) in African countries. Forty-seven articles were found across 26 countries. Objective: To study whether the number of published articles on PCD in countries in Africa can be used as an indicator of PCD. Design: This is a secondary analysis of a completed scoping review. Measurements: Spearman correlations were applied to the number of published articles ('published articles') and the number of published articles with a coauthor from a high-income country (HIC) ('HIC published articles') with level of PCD using Lynch et al's updated world map (PC World Map) as a proxy. A subanalysis was undertaken for Anglophone versus non-Anglophone countries. Results: There were positive Spearman correlations ( r) between the PC World Map's levels and published articles ( r = 0.73; p < 0.001), and with HIC published articles ( r = 0.68; p < 0.001). For Anglophone countries, the r was statistically significant ( p < 0.001) at 0.69 and 0.70, versus 0.58 and 0.45 for non-Anglophone countries for published articles and HIC published articles, respectively. Kruskal-Wallis test showed a statistically significant difference between Anglophone and non-Anglophone countries for both published articles and HIC published articles ( p < 0.01). Conclusion: Published articles and HIC published articles on PCD in Africa had strong positive r's with the PC World Map. These measures may be considered as two indicators of PCD for countries in Africa, particularly for Anglophone countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Regional cooperation on health in Africa is not new. The institutional landscape of regional cooperation for health and health research, however, has seen important changes. Recent health emergencies have focussed regional bodies' attention on supporting aspects of national health preparedness and response. The state of national health research systems is a key element of capacity to plan and respond to health needs - raising questions about the roles African regional bodies can or should play in strengthening health research systems., Methods: We mapped regional organisations involved in health research across Africa and conducted 18 interviews with informants from 15 regional organisations. We investigated the roles, challenges, and opportunities of these bodies in strengthening health research. We deductively coded interview data using themes from established pillars of health research systems - governance, creating resources, research production and use, and financing. We analysed organisations' relevant activities in these areas, how they do this work, and where they perceive impact., Results: Regional organisations with technical foci on health or higher education (versus economic or political remits) were involved in all four areas. Most organisations reported activities in governance and research use. Involvement in governance centred mainly around agenda-setting and policy harmonisation. For organisations involved in creating resources, activities focused on strengthening human resources, but few reported developing research institutions, networks, or infrastructure. Organisations reported more involvement in disseminating than producing research. Generally, few have directly contributed to financing health research. Informants reported gaps in research coordination, infrastructure, and advocacy at regional level. Finally, we found regional bodies' mandates, authority, and collaborations influence their activities in supporting national health research systems., Conclusion: Continued strengthening of health research on the African continent requires strategic thinking about the roles, comparative advantages, and capability of regional organisations to facilitate capacity and growth of health research systems., (© 2022 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.)