1 research outputs found
Implementation of a health policy advisory committee as a knowledge translation platform: the Nigeria experience
Background:
In recent times, there has been a growing demand internationally for health policies to be based on
reliable research evidence. Consequently, there is a need to strengthen institutions and mechanisms that can promote
interactions among researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders who can influence the uptake of research
findings. The Health Policy Advisory Committee (HPAC) is one of such mechanisms that can serve as an excellent
forum for the interaction of policy-makers and researchers. Therefore, the need to have a long term mechanism
that allows for periodic interactions between researchers and policy-makers within the existing government system
necessitated our implementation of a newly established HPAC in Ebonyi State Nigeria, as a Knowledge Translation
(KT) platform. The key study objective was to enhance the capacity of the HPAC and equip its members with the
skills/competence required for the committee to effectively promote evidence informed policy-making and function
as a KT platform.
Methods:
A series of capacity building programmes and KT activities were undertaken including: i) Capacity
building of the HPAC using Evidence-to-Policy Network (EVIPNet) SUPPORT tools; ii) Capacity enhancement
mentorship programme of the HPAC through a three-month executive training programme on health policy/health
systems and KT in Ebonyi State University Abakaliki; iii) Production of a policy brief on strategies to improve the
performance of the Government’s Free Maternal and Child Health Care Programme in Ebonyi State Nigeria; and
iv) Hosting of a multi-stakeholders policy dialogue based on the produced policy brief on the Government’s Free
Maternal and Child Health Care Programme.
Results:
The study findings indicated a noteworthy improvement in knowledge of evidence-to-policy link among
the HPAC members; the elimination of mutual mistrust between policy-makers and researchers; and an increase in
the awareness of importance of HPAC in the Ministry of Health (MoH).
Conclusion:
Findings from this study suggest that a HPAC can function as a KT platform and can introduce a new
dimension towards facilitating evidence-to-policy link into the operation of the
MoH
, and can serve as an excellent
platform to bridge the gap between research and polic