10 November 2020 – The virtual meeting with supporting institutions took place on 10 November 2020. The network will play an important role in strengthening regional and national capacity to improve the availability, quality and use of evidence for decision-making and will provide a platform for sharing experiences among countries and supporting WHO programmes, in line with GPW13 and the SDGs.
To ensure that health policies are appropriate, effective and cost-effective, they need to be based on sound evidence. Over the years, WHO has taken important steps to strengthen evidence-informed health policy-making in countries. In 2019, resolution EM/RC66/R.5 mandated the Regional Office to strengthen and institutionalize the use of evidence for health policy development and establish a regional network of institutions to support evidence-informed policy-making at national levels.
Leading researchers from relevant regional and global institutions in Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America, as well as the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and System Research and Cochrane, were invited to attend the meeting.
The meeting discussed how to form a regional network of institutions to enhance use of evidence and data to policy at the national and regional level. Further discussions were held on collaboration with other national, regional and global bodies. Participants expressed a strong interest in supporting the network and the WHO regional framework for action to improve national institutional capacity for use of evidence in health policy-making. Examples were presented of areas of cooperation and collaboration in support of the initiative and plans for 2021 were discussed.
Related links
NEDtP scope and strategy
English | Arabic | French
EM/RC66/6
Developing national institutional capacity for evidence-informed policy-making for health
English | Arabic | French
EM/RC66/R.5
Developing national institutional capacity for evidence-informed policy-making for health
English | Arabic | French
Framework for action to improve national institutional capacity for the use of evidence in health policy-making in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
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