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Partners implementing the Strengthening Capacity to Use Research Evidence in Health Policy (SECURE Health) programme are participating at a consultative meeting that will run until 26^th October 2016. Among the objectives of the meeting, which is taking place at Southern Sun Mayfair Hotel in Nairobi, is to review the programme’s achievements since November 2013, ahead of its completion in November 2016.

The SECURE Health programme, which is led by AFIDEP, seeks to optimise individual and institutional capacity in accessing and utilising health research evidence in decision-making in Kenya and Malawi. It was set up to test interventions that have potential to address individual and organisational barriers to evidence use in the health sector. The primary aim of the programme is to strengthen the capacity of health policymakers and legislators in accessing, interpreting, and using research evidence in decision-making processes.

The ongoing meeting aims at: consolidating lessons on capacity building as a tool for enabling Evidence-Informed Policymaking (EIPM); reviewing the EIPM curriculum that was developed under the SECURE Health programme and exploring options for its wide dissemination as well as how its usage can be tracked; reviewing the tools for the programme’s end-line survey; and facilitating end-of-programme reflections.

AFIDEP officials participating at the meeting include Dr. Eliya Zulu, AFIDEP Executive Director; Dr. Rose Oronje, Director, Science Communications and Evidence Uptake; Dr. Ferdinand Okwaro, Senior Knowledge Translation Scientist; Dr. Abiba Longwe-Ngwira, Knowledge Translation Scientist; Mr. Alphonce Werah, Finance and Administration Manager; Ms. Violet Murunga, Senior Knowledge Translation Officer; Ms. Nissily Mushani, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator and; Ms. Marjory Githure, Communications Intern.

The SECURE Health programme is implemented through a consortium of five institutions led by AFIDEP and in partnership with the Ministries of Health and Parliaments in Kenya and Malawi. Consortium partners, who are represented in the ongoing meeting, include: FHI 360, the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC), the Consortium for National Health Research (CNHR-Kenya), College of Medicine at the University of Malawi, and UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST).