Sharenet Operational Resarch Meeting June 23rd. UvA, Amsterdam - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sharenet Operational Resarch Meeting June 23rd. UvA, Amsterdam

Danny de Vries, Ph.D. Center for Social Science & Global Health Department of Anthropology d.h.devries@uva.nl

Agenda

What When Coffee and Tea 14.15–14.30 Welcome and agenda (Danny de Vries, Chair, UvA) 14:30-14:35 Brief round of introductions 14:35-14:40 Sharing OR research updates, with special attention to how OR approach taken may influence how results are turned into “evidence” (10 min presentation + 5 min discussion) 14:40-16:10 Brainstorm on constraints and opportunities of turning OR data into evidence. 16:10-16:55 Round of closing 16:55-17:00

Welcome to evidence

• Pang (2007) - Can it work? Will it work? Is it worth it?
• Last meeting systematic review: the golden evidence

standard?

Benzies et al. 2006 State-of-the-Evidence Reviews: Advantages and Challenges. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing Second Quarter Pang T. Evidence to action in the developing world: what evidence is needed? Bull World Health Organ 2007;85:247.

Evidence-based policy-making

Evidence-based policy-making’ (EBPM) - a legitimate policy development approach based on “scientific fact”. Qualitative study Behague et al. (2009) with program managers in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Nepal:

• Limited impact on context-specific programmatic policy-development and

implementation at the national and sub-national levels;

• Promotes uniformity of methodological and policy approaches, despite call for

disciplinary diversity in public health literature;

• National evidence-based policies are found to hold little weight in countering global

policy interests, which are legitimated, rather than informed, by evidence;

• Interpretations of research findings shaped donors priorities driven by the need to

provide generalizable research recommendations based on scientifically replicable methods.

• D. Behague et al. Evidence-based policy-making: The implications of globally-applicable research for

context-specific problem-solving in developing countries. Social Science & Medicine 69 (2009) 1539–1546

Policy relevant evidence?

Pang (2007) & Bowen & Zwi (2005):

• Research is only one form of evidence for policy.
• In health policy emphasis on context-specific research for national decision-making.
• Context demands observational studies, qualitative research, “experience”, “know-how”,

consensus and “local knowledge”

• Researchers often do not see or recognize contextual factors
• Different policy questions may require different types of evidence.
• Evidence interacts with “context” before it is fully adopted in policy and practice
• Effective knowledge transfer is not a “one off” event, rather it is a powerful and continuous

process in which knowledge accumulates and influences thinking over time

• Policy-makers should be involved from the start in defining policy question, processes for

developing the evidence base, and interpreting reviews and evidence summaries.

Syeda & Hydera (2007): Conduct and utilization of stakeholder analyses to determine the strength of the evidence for policy interface.

Shamsuzzoha B Syeda & Adnan A Hydera. Evidence to action needs. Research. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Sept 2007, 85 (9)

Bowen & Zwi 2005 – Evidence informed policy & practice pathway

Bowen S, Zwi AB (2005) Pathways to “evidence-informed” policy and practice: A framework for action. PLoS Med 2(7): e166.

Member presentations

Brainstorm

• How to conduct a stakeholder analyses to determine the

strength of the evidence for policy interface?  in small groups discuss your evidence based using Bowen & Zwi’s model on evidence informed policy & practice pathway

Publishing your evidence

Publishing programmatic results remains very limited, particularly in low income countries. Rujumba & Byamugisha (2012) argue to publish because:

• A quality-control standard,
• Opportunity for implementers to contribute to policy change
• Sharing knowledge in more compressed and easy to read formats.
• Wider dissemination of knowledge
• Building skills of the individuals involved in the process of writing
• Promoting accountability

Fostering more collaboration between programme implementers and the academia should be promoted (e.g. mentorship, shared learning).

Rujumba & Byamugisha 2012, Publishing operational research from ‘real life’ programme data: a better form

• f accountability. Tropical Medicine and International Health. Vol 7 (1):133-134.