EIDM training as a key intervention among researchers to enhance research uptake and policy engagement: an evaluation study.

The Evidence Informed Decision Making (EIDM) field has evolved faster in the past decade. This progress shows a need for capacity enhancement amongst evidence producers and evidence users in EIDM training. Through the Enhance DELTAS programme, led by the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), the project provided research uptake and policy engagement training, mentorship and webinars to awardees of the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Africa initiative, led by the African Academy of Sciences (AAS).

Integrating vector control within an emerging agricultural system in a region of climate vulnerability in southern Malawi: A focus on malaria, schistosomiasis, and arboviral diseases.

Infectious diseases are emerging at an unprecedented rate while food production intensifies to keep pace with population growth. Large-scale irrigation schemes have the potential to permanently transform the landscape with health, nutritional and socio-economic benefits; yet, this also leads to a shift in land-use patterns that can promote endemic and invasive insect vectors and pathogens. The balance between ensuring food security and preventing emerging infectious disease is a necessity; yet the impact of irrigation on vector-borne diseases at the epidemiological, entomological and economic level is uncertain and depends on the geographical and climatological context.

Functionality of technical working groups in enabling evidence-informed decision-making within Malawi's Ministry of Health: a cross-sectional qualitative study.

Background: The roles and functionality of technical working groups (TWGs) in the health sectors vary across countries, still they aim to support government and ministries in formulating evidence-informed recommendations for policies and facilitate dialogue and alignment of activities among stakeholders within the health sector. Thus, TWGs have a role in enhancing the functionality and effectiveness of the health system structure. However, in Malawi, the functionality of TWGs and how they utilize research evidence to contribute to decision-making is not monitored.

Knowledge translation and evidence generation to increase the impact of vector control in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Malawi.

Lack of context-specific evidence and inadequate evidence-use for decision-making contribute to poor health. This paper reports on our work aimed at addressing the knowledge translation (KT) gap between evidence generators and users. We present our experiences of strengthening KT via technical advisory groups (TAGs) in parallel with increasing evidence generation through research fellowships and operational research.

Training and mentorship as a tool for building African researchers' capacity in knowledge translation.

As one of the main knowledge producers, researchers can play an important role in contributing to efforts that bridge the gap between knowledge, policy and practice. However, for researchers to play this role, they need knowledge translation (KT) capacities that many typically lack. Furthermore, research has confirmed that little is known on KT training approaches for LMICs researchers and their effectiveness.

'If not TB, what could it be?' Chest X-ray findings from the 2016 Kenya Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey.

Background: The prevalence of diseases other than TB detected during chest X-ray (CXR) screening is unknown in sub-Saharan Africa. This represents a missed opportunity for identification and treatment of potentially significant disease. Our aim was to describe and quantify non-TB abnormalities identified by TB-focused CXR screening during the 2016 Kenya National TB Prevalence Survey.

Study protocol: analysis of regional lung health policies and stakeholders in Africa.

Background: Lung health is a critical area for research in sub-Saharan Africa. The International Multidisciplinary Programme to Address Lung Health and TB in Africa (IMPALA) is a collaborative programme that seeks to fill evidence gaps to address high-burden lung health issues in Africa. In order to generate demand for and facilitate use of IMPALA research by policy-makers and other decision-makers at the regional level, an analysis of regional lung health policies and stakeholders will be undertaken to inform a programmatic strategy for policy engagement.

Community interventions in Low-And Middle-Income Countries to inform COVID-19 control implementation decisions in Kenya: A rapid systematic review.

Globally, public health measures like face masks, hand hygiene and maintaining social distancing have been implemented to delay and reduce local transmission of COVID-19. To date there is emerging evidence to provide effectiveness and compliance to intervention measures on COVID-19 due to rapid spread of the disease. We synthesized evidence of community interventions and innovative practices to mitigate COVID-19 as well as previous respiratory outbreak infections which may share some aspects of transmission dynamics with COVID-19.

Review of published evidence on knowledge translation capacity, practice and support among researchers and research institutions in low- and middle-income countries.

Background: Knowledge translation (KT) is a dynamic and iterative process that includes synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically sound application of knowledge to yield beneficial outcomes for society. Effective KT requires researchers to play an active role in promoting evidence uptake. This paper presents a systematised review of evidence on low- and middle-income country (LMIC) researchers' KT capacity, practice and interventions for enhancing their KT practice (support) with the aim of identifying gaps and informing future research and interventions.

Strengthening capacity to use research evidence in health sector policy-making: experience from Kenya and Malawi.

Background: Among the many barriers to evidence use in decision-making, weak capacity for evidence use has attracted a lot of focus in the last decade. The study aims to inform and enrich ongoing and future efforts to strengthen capacity for evidence use by presenting and discussing the experiences and lessons of a project implemented in Kenya and Malawi to strengthen individual and institutional capacity for evidence use within the ministries of health (MoHs).

Methods: This paper draws on the internal and external evaluations of a 3-year project funded by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, the Strengthening Capacity to Use Research Evidence in Health Policy (SECURE Health).

The Kenyan national response to internationally agreed sexual and reproductive health and rights goals: a case study of three policies.

While priorities for, and decision-making processes on, sexual and reproductive health and rights have been determined and led mainly at the international level, conflicting power dynamics and responses at the national level in some countries have continued to pose challenges for operationalising international agreements. This paper demonstrates how these conflicts have played out in Kenya through an analysis of three policy-making processes, which led to the Adolescent Reproductive Health and Development Policy (2003), the Sexual Offences Act (2006), and the National Reproductive Health Policy (2007). The paper is based on data from a broader study on the drivers and inhibitors of sexual and reproductive health policy reform in Kenya, using a qualitative, case study design.

Operationalising sexual and reproductive health and rights in sub-Saharan Africa: constraints, dilemmas and strategies.

Background: The continued poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa highlight the difficulties in reforming policies and laws, and implementing effective programmes. This paper uses one international and two national case studies to reflect on the challenges, dilemmas and strategies used in operationalising sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in different African contexts.

Methods: The international case study focuses on the progress made by African countries in implementing the African Union's Maputo Plan of Action (for the Operationalisation of the Continental Policy Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights) and the experiences of state and non-state stakeholders in this process.

Engaging media in communicating research on sexual and reproductive health and rights in sub-Saharan Africa: experiences and lessons learned.

Background: The mass media have excellent potential to promote good sexual and reproductive health outcomes, but around the world, media often fail to prioritize sexual and reproductive health and rights issues or report them in an accurate manner. In sub-Saharan Africa media coverage of reproductive health issues is poor due to the weak capacity and motivation for reporting these issues by media practitioners. This paper describes the experiences of the African Population and Health Research Center and its partners in cultivating the interest and building the capacity of the media in evidence-based reporting of reproductive health issues in sub-Saharan Africa.

Provision and use of maternal health services among urban poor women in Kenya: what do we know and what can we do?

In sub-Saharan Africa, the unprecedented population growth that started in the second half of the twentieth century has evolved into unparalleled urbanization and an increasing proportion of urban dwellers living in slums and shanty towns, making it imperative to pay greater attention to the health problems of the urban poor. In particular, urgent efforts need to focus on maternal health. Despite the lack of reliable trend data on maternal mortality, some investigators now believe that progress in maternal health has been very slow in sub-Saharan Africa.