Project “SHARE” Strengthening Health Applying Research Evidence
Original Protocol: ‘Strengthening capacities of national health authorities and icddr,b for better health policies and strategies that lead to improved health outcomes’
This capacity building project is a part of the European Union’s ‘Supporting Public Health Institutes Programme’ (SPHIP) which is being implemented in eight countries including Bangladesh.
This five-year programme of work (January 2015 – January 2020) is expected to
-leave a legacy of strong public health institutions that are capable of promoting evidence-informed policy-making, and using evidence at key decision-points.
-Create both the “supply” and the “demand” for high quality evidence in policy cycles in Bangladesh
Evidence-Informed Policy Making: Where We stand today
•Evidence informed health policy making has become a political mantra
•Ideally research should contribute to improving policy and practice for desired health outcomes
•Health policies are rarely evidence-informed
•District Health Information System platform is central to evidence informed, responsive decision making for public health policies and programs
Priority Technical Areas: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), Urban Health
NCDs scenario:
·NCDs are responsible for half of Bangladesh’s annual mortality and account for 61% of the country’s disease burden.
·Bangladesh faces challenges in reducing risk factors, conducting research and surveillance, and strengthening health systems in relation to NCDs.
Urban Health situation:
·Bangladesh is undergoing a rapid urbanization process.
·From being a largely rural country now (66.5% of the population lives in rural areas in 2014), Bangladesh will be an urban country in 2039 when the majority of people will live in urban areas.
·Cities are characterized by large inequalities in health-related conditions.
·About one third of the urban population lives in slums, with deteriorating health and nutrition condition.
The Project targets-
ØPolicy Makers and Programme Managers of (Bangladesh) will be trained on
-Health Systems Research & Evidence Informed Public Health Policy Making
-District Health Information System (DHIS2) software
ØEstablish a Systematic Review Centre and make it sustainable to undertake systematic reviews and meta-analysis;
ØPublic Health Institutes will be able to acquire, assess, adapt and apply relevant research evidence for strategy and policy-making;
ØStrengthen “Research Policy Communication Cell” (RPCC) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to identify, compile, summarize, and communicate with high quality evidence to potential users.
ØPolicy briefs produced related to systematic reviews and other research and evidence of relevance published and disseminated; publications on topics of project importance published in high quality journals.
ØKnowledge generating institutions leading to more evidence-informed communications and knowledge translation outputs
ØCollaboration and engagement between researchers and policy-makers will be strengthened at the national and international levels to ensure the creation of needs-based research and evidence-informed policy towards improving public health outcomes.
Overall Project objective:
“To support evidence informed public health policy making in Bangladesh, leading to progress towards UHC and improved health equity, particularly for urban poor and those suffering from non-communicable diseases (NCDs)”.
Project aims to achieve these objectives through
(1)Strengthening the capacity of public health institutes to generate, analyze, synthesize evidence and engage with key decision makers to promote evidence-informed policy cycles and
(2)Strengthening the capacity of the policy influencers and policy implementers to access, analyze and appropriately use high quality evidence in health policy and practice
Journey towards Evidence-informed public health policy making
Partners:
Centre for Equity and Health Systems (CEHS), icddr,b has partnered with
-Planning and Research Unit of the Directorate General of Health Services
(DGHS)
-Public Health and Informatics of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU)
-Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research (IEDCR)
-University College London (UCL), UK, and Palladium Group, India at global level
Capacity Development
Capacity development interventions at 3 levels
- Individual level
- Organizational level
- Institutional / National level
A.Individual capacity
Three modules development on
1. Evidence Informed Health Policy Making (acquire, assess, adapt and apply)
2. DHIS 2 – District Health Information System 2
Conduction of Short courses on
- Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
- Non-communicable disease
- Leadership & Governance
Conduction of Long courses on Health Systems and Health Policy
- -One PhD
- -Two Masters
B.Organizational capacity
1. Research Policy Communication Cell (RPCC)
•An on-line repository for research outputs such as policy briefs, newspaper articles, project reports, and other published and un-published literature on health
•Organizing policy dialogues, dissemination seminars, and workshops to support EIPM
•Implementing 2 training modules: health Policy and DHIS2
•Exchange program and collaborative research
2. Evidence Based Research Group (EBRG)
- Promote collaborative health systems and policy research
- Help RPCC in research-policy-communication
- Support writing policy briefs, newspaper articles and other communication materials for wider dissemination
- Organize e-learning platform and GESI training
- Support Systematic Review Centre in organizing reviews in areas of interest
3. A systematic Review Centre at BSMMU
•Train HR for systematic review and meta-analysis
•Undertake SR and meta analysis in the area of interest (NCDs and urban poor)
•Develop a and sustain a national resource pool
•Regional and international collaboration
•Strong multi-media presence in dissemination / communication
•Raising funds for further systematic review
C. Institutional / National Capacity
1.Think Tank for high level policy analysis and dialogue
2.A Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to guide the implementation of designed activities
3.South-south collaboration with the help of Palladium Group, India
4.Strengthening public engagement (Café Scientifique and Town Hall session)
5.Strengthening gender and social inclusion within activities of target institutes