Part II of the SOS-SPC report addresses the state of extant research and identifies critical research priorities pertaining to the following questions: 1) How do we assess spirituality?
"We emphasize the importance of involving children and young people in establishing priorities pertaining to water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Results show that many of the coded articles can provide or yield information to address some priorities pertaining to Human Resources for Health (HRH).
The second priority setting was a subset of the first and was conducted in nine countries of the EMR and identified policy priorities pertaining to HRH, health financing, and the role of the non-state sector [ 12].
Finally, this exercise focuses on four out of the six building blocks of a health system, as per WHO definition, and does not capture SRs addressing priorities pertaining to governance and health information.
Table 3 details how many of the identified HPSR articles fitting coding criteria provide or yield information that can address regional priorities pertaining to three themes as identified in an earlier study.
Addressed or can provide information to address at least one of the identified policy-relevant research priorities pertaining to the HRH, health financing, role of the non-state sector, and ATM [ 12, 13].
To assess the extent to which the existing HPSR that is produced in the region addresses regional priorities pertaining to Health Financing, Human Resources for Health and the Role of the Non-State Sector, a fourth independent reviewer (different from the first three) assumed the task of matching each of the identified articles from the 12 countries with one or more regional priorities.
Not surprisingly, the top priorities included many of the issues discussed in the draft case study documents, including priorities pertaining to the need for better characterization of physicochemical properties, effects (ecological as well as human health), and exposure, although the specific needs were much more detailed than can be summarized here.
A systematic search was conducted to identify published SRs on policy-relevant research priorities pertaining to the following themes: HRH, health financing, the role of the non-state sector, and ATM, as identified in the two priority-setting exercises conducted in the region [ 12, 13].
