What this document is
The ESSENCE on Health Research collaboration, coordinated through the World Health Organization's Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), produces this framework for funders who support research capacity strengthening in low- and middle-income countries. It was first issued in 2011 and updated in 2016 to reflect a literature review and feedback from users of the original edition.
The framework's stated aim is harmonization: research funders often ask grantees to report progress in different formats, and a shared planning, monitoring and evaluation approach is meant to reduce that duplicated effort while making it easier to compare results and share lessons across funding programs.
The 2016 update added an explicit principle on equity, expanded the discussion of local strengths and long-term commitment, split the environmental component of the framework into three levels, and introduced a matrix for assessing research networks. Although ESSENCE itself is a health-research collaboration, the framework's authors note it was written to apply across research fields generally, not only to health.
Where to find it
Available from WHO/TDR.