News

Ministry of Health officials to graduate in evidence informed policy making

7 September 2016

Author: Anthony Mugo

L-R: Dr. Rose Oronje, AFIDEP Director of Science Communications & Evidence Uptake, Mr. Bonnie Mathooko, Head of the Research Unit at the Parliament Research Service and Hon. Susan Musyoka, MP for Machakos County and the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Caucus on Evidence-Informed Oversight and Decision-Making (PC-EIDM) hand Mr. Paul Okech his certificate at the EIPM course graduation ceremony for Parliament Research Service officials in August 2016. Ministry of Health officials will be graduating on Wednesday, September 13, 2016 at the Pan Afric Hotel in Nairobi. Image: AFIDEP.

A graduation ceremony for officials from the Ministry of Health who have completed a course in Evidence-Informed Policy-Making (EIPM) will be held on Wednesday, September 13, 2016 at the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi.

The ceremony will be hosted by the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) and will be presided over by the Director of Medical Services, Dr. Jackson Kioko. He will also issue those graduating with certificates. As part of the ceremony, the MoH staff will make presentations of policy briefs on various health issues that they have authored as part of the EIPM training.

Training of MoH technical staff on how to access, synthesise, appraise and utilise research evidence in policy-making was through the support of Strengthening Capacity to Use Research Evidence in Health Policy (SECURE Health) a programme implemented by a consortium led by AFIDEP.

The aim of the programme is to optimise individual and institutional capacity in accessing and utilising data and research evidence in decision-making in Kenya and Malawi.

The need for the training emerged after the SECURE Health Programme conducted a baseline study on the status of evidence use for analysis within the Ministry of Health in 2014 and an evaluation exercise in 2015, both of which identified the need for such training. These assessments also showed the need for the formulation of standard guidelines for searching for evidence required for informing policy analysis and decision-making in the Ministry.

In Kenya, the SECURE Health programme partners include the Ministry of Health, the Consortium for National Health Research (CNHR), FHI-360, and the East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA-HC). The programme is funded by the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID).