Jesse Uneke

Dr Uneke and his team brought together 42 participants from a range of disciplines and sectors, such as the ministry of health and local government authorities, nongovernmental organizations, health professionals from teaching hospitals, the academic community and the media. The group produced evidence-based policy briefs on malaria, schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis in low-income settings – issues they decided were important to their districts.

Four training workshops were held under the mentorship programme strategy. The first workshop was focused on information and communications technology; the second concentrated on health-policy information literacy training; the third focused on improving the capacity for policy briefing and policy dialogue/stakeholder engagement. A final workshop was organized to review and comment on the policy briefs that had been developed and to identify potential policy options/recommendations.

New tools and mentorship

One of the main tools used by the team for the training is the “Operational Manual for Strengthening Institutional Capacity to Employ Evidence in Health Policymaking in Developing Countries”. The strategies contained in this manual were designed to assist in building sustainable and effective health systems in developing countries and covers topics such as stewardship, governance, financing, resource management and informatics, and service delivery.

Jonathan Igboji, a director in the Ministry of Health, says
that as participants learnt to apply a "science lens" to policy-making, they also became more aware of the need to “formulate health-friendly policies that have a direct bearing on the lives of population”. He added that a successful health initiative, the free maternal health services in Ebonyi State, benefited directly from the training programme as “we used the knowledge from the trainings to influence the final policy documents, and because we participated in the policy formulation, it was easy to implement such policies”.

A consultant family physician, Dr Sylvester Oputa, said that the programme had opened his eyes on “how research should not end in published papers only, but on how to translate research into policy. The repertoire of knowledge will help me to translate research to policy anytime I am in a position to affect policy in health care”.

Nigeria evidence to policy workshop Courtesy Jesse Uneke

Mr Chika Nwankwo, Health Management Information System Officer at the Ministry of Health in Ebonyi State, reported that the training programmes had “enhanced my capacity to anchor the research group which produced the Ebonyi State Strategic Health Development Plan in 2010 which covers the period 2010–2015” and that it had provided him “with the knowledge on how to link the Ebonyi State Health Strategic Plan Result Matrix to health policies”.

A health policy advisory committee (HPAC) previously established by Dr Uneke in Ebonyi State has served as a platform for this group. “I wanted researchers and policy-makers to have opportunities to get to know each other better,” says Dr Uneke. “These exchanges are leading to long-term improvements.”

For more information, contact: Edward Kamau (kamaued@who.int).