tel: +27 10 590 1300 | e: jmdluli@auruminstitute.org
The purpose of SAHTAC is to advocate for an enabling environment for research, development, and access to life-saving health technologies and innovations. This will increase public awareness on the need for harmonised and improved medicines regulatory; research and development (R&D) systems, influencing change through appropriate policy and budget mechanisms, activating political and social support for these changes, and holding government accountable for their commitments to improving the health R&D landscape in South Africa. SAHTAC is hosted by The Aurum Institute.
The South African government has established a robust policy framework for managing, coordinating, and funding R&D.
The availability and accessibility of funding for health R&D enables local researchers to grow South Africa’s innovation sector and ensures that research priorities are locally generated.
Civil society can play a critical role in holding the government accountable to commitments and ensuring that health R&Drelated strategies are implemented.
from across the health spectrum understand the importance of R&D in ensuring that health products are available to those most in need.
to elevate this common message and to ensure that health R&D is prioritized as a means of growing South Africa’s economy and guaranteeing a higher quality of life for its people.
Research and development (R&D) is critical to ensuring that highimpact, affordable health technologies reach the people who need them most. In lowand middleincome countries, a policy and regulatory environment that encourages innovation can lead to enhanced economic growth and better social outcomes. Moreover, domestic investment in health R&D guarantees that solutions reflect a country’s priority health needs.
The government of South Africa has demonstrated commitment to health R&D, passing a number of policies and strategies aimed at bolstering the country’s innovation agenda. Additionally, government funding for health R&D has increased over the past decade and has met an important international commitment to direct 2 percent of the national health budget to R&D. These policies and commitments should ultimately translate science, research, and technological development into economic growth and a higher quality of life for South Africa’s people—implementation, however, remains a challenge.
