We are an international health research institute based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Our research is addressing some of the world’s most pressing health challenges.
We aim to ensure that our evidence and experience is widely shared.
Stay up to date with our research and activities.
We are pleased to share our Strategic Plan 2019-2022. The new Plan establishes the strategic foundation for our work.
Our 2015-2018 Strategic Plan was revolutionary, successfully restructuring the organisation to improve capability, efficiency and governance, securing the future of icddr,b and enhancing our science and innovation through implementation of a focused research strategy.
Our 2019-2022 Plan is an evolution of our achievements as we continue to align and encourage implementation of research to address the world’s most pressing public health challenges, guided by the Sustainable Development Goals:
We will continue to focus our research on areas of unmet need, developing high-quality research programmes addressing the key health challenges of Bangladesh and the global South.
Reducing maternal, neonatal, and child mortality and improving the well-being of women and children
Preventing and treating maternal and childhood malnutrition
Controlling enteric and respiratory Infections
Detecting and controlling emerging and re-emerging infections
Achieving universal health coverage
Achieving gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights
Examining the health consequences and adaptations to climate change
Preventing and treating non-communicable diseases
We will develop, evaluate and promote the implementation of innovations – products, tools and innovative models of service delivery – tailored to the needs of Bangladesh and other low-resource settings.
Through our hospitals, we will continue to provide high-quality clinical services in diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition. We will also provide advice and training in humanitarian emergency response situations.
We will continue to develop our research infrastructure – for population-based, clinical and laboratory-based research – to ensure it is aligned with our research objectives, remains internationally competitive and is financially sustainable.
We will build skills and partnerships to ensure that our research evidence has impact on national and international policies, programmes and practices.
We will continue to build the skills and competencies of all our people with a special focus on scientific staff, specifically developing young and mid-career researchers and supporting female researchers.
We will continue to update and improve our business processes and governance regularly and modernise our operations to maximise efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
As well as carefully controlling expenditure, we will strengthen our fundraising strategy and maximise opportunities for income generation.
In the past three years, one of our biggest achievements has been the deployment of oral cholera vaccines to over one million Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals in Cox’s Bazar, which averted a cholera epidemic – a testament to the implementation of innovative science. Capitalising on our expertise, we have established “Humanitarian and Clinical Services” as an individual goal, strengthening our responsibility to aid the vulnerable during times of crisis and recognising our enduring humanitarian response in Dhaka, through our diarrhoeal diseases hospital – the world’s largest specialist facility.
In our continual commitment to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, we have included a gender-related research theme, addressing key issues which affect women and girls in Bangladesh.
We will continue to develop, evaluate and promote the uptake of low-cost, life-saving innovative solutions. The new Strategic Plan highlights our focus on knowledge transfer and implementation of our innovations that can make a difference to people in Bangladesh and other low- and middle-income countries.
icddr,b has produced life-saving science for over sixty years and we look forward to continuing this tradition through with our 2019-2022 plan and beyond helping us to achieve our vision of a world where more people survive and live healthy lives.