A one day workshop on Using Evidence in Health Sector Policy and Planning was organized on 21 August 2018 by the Nepal Health Research Council in Coordination with the Ministry of Health and Population. The workshop was aimed to inform policymakers on the principles, approaches, and tools for using evidence in health policy and planning. Altogether 90 participants from the Ministry of Health and Population, EDPs and the NHRC attended inaugural and the first two sessions of the workshop. The first two session of the workshop focused on presentations related to principle and practices of evidence use in policy. Around 40 participants were engaged in practical exercise after the launch break in identifying the evidence need and in developing recommendations for evidence based research and action. Prof Paul Garner from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Denny John and Ashrita Saran from the Campbell Collaboration facilitated the workshop. The inaugural session was organized in auspicious presence of Hoh Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Population Mr. Upendra Yadav. The workshop envisage to cultivate the practice of evidence based health sector policy and planning through continue use of tools and methods demonstrated in the third session of the workshop. GIZ Nepal provided logistic support to organize the Workshop.
NHRC hosted an inception meeting on 22 August with Prof Paul Garner and the team for planning Research and Development Initiative (READ-IT) project. READ-IT is a DFID, UK supported n imitative in the South Asia and Africa to promote Evidence Based Decision Making in health. The workshop outlined READ-IT activities for Nepal, Bangladesh and India to be carried out in collaboration with NHRC, ICDTRB Bangladesh, the Campbell Collaboration, India and the Cochrane South Asia, India. READ-IT activities for Nepal will entail developing capacity of policymakers to use available evidence in heath policy process as well as engaging Nepalese researchers in generating high quality evidence through Campbell and Cochrane systematic reviews. The detail READ-IT plan of action will be finalized and agreed on January 2019.
