19 April 2022 | Cairo - A comprehensive training package to build capacity for evidence-informed policy-making and an accompanying guiding flowchart for policy-makers, policy developers and researchers have been launched by the Regional Office at an event to introduce and advocate for the use of these unique resources, which bring together a wealth of knowledge and were developed by different teams across the globe.
The launch event took place on 19 April 2022. More than 100 researchers and policy-makers from ministries of health and relevant academic and research institutions from the Region and other countries, as well as Network of Institutions for Evidence and Data to Policy (NEDtP) member institutions, attended the meeting virtually.
The development and launch of the web-based resources is among a series of regional training programmes to strengthen national institutional capacity for the use of evidence for health policy development. As requested in the landmark resolution EM/RC66/R.5 in 2019, the Regional Office has amplified its activities in support of evidence-informed policy-making for health in the countries of the Region, with enhancing national technical capacity as a key area identified in the regional action plan. The event was inaugurated by Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director. Dr Arash Rashidian, regional Director for Science, Information and Dissemination, then introduced the development of the web resources and the guiding flowchart.
The capacity-building packages are provided through the "Evidence and data to policy" webpages of the Regional Office's website, which currently contains over 150 training resources categorized under 13 thematic areas, including the knowledge translation process, conflict of interest management, communicating evidence, critical appraisal, policy briefs, policy dialogue, policy priority-setting, policy implementation and evaluation, systematic reviews, rapid reviews, cost analyses/economic evaluation, health technology assessment (HTA) and clinical practice guidelines (CPG). A guiding flowchart was offered alongside to serve as a recommended training route for users.
Following the detailed explanation of the training resources, the WHO Representative to Somalia and one of the key policy-makers from Morocco's Ministry of Health shared their countries' perspectives. They indicated the advantages of the products for enhancing national capacity for use of evidence for policy-making for health and acknowledged WHO’s support to Member States.
The meeting was concluded by Dr Rana Hajjeh, Director of Programme Management at the Regional Office, who highlighted the way forward for enhancing evidence-informed policy-making in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.