On 6th April 2017, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH, Basel) convened a series of high-level decision-makers and academics from Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Nigeria, the UK, and Switzerland, to critically discuss policy makers’ evidence needs, from a practical perspective. The one-day event was part of the series of bi-annual symposia organised by the Swiss TPH to bring together diverse stakeholders to address top priority international health issues.

The symposium was organised in three sessions throughout the day to cover the critical phases in the process of translating evidence into decisions: (1) Policy makers’ perspectives; (2) Producing quality evidence and promoting its effective use; and (3) Synthesis and dissemination of evidence. The event culminated with a roundtable on bringing evidence to the decision makers’ table.

Policy-makers and managers from Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Nigeria shared their real life experiences in making policies and decisions in contexts of competing interests and responsibilities. They emphasised the challenges involved in managing pressures from donors and stakeholders alongside countries’ health emergencies and national health priorities, and highlighted how the lack of quality evidence can often compromise policy makers’ decision-making ability.

The second session portrayed experiences in producing evidence, including computer-based radiology services in Egypt, and global evidence on vaccination coverage. The case of vaccination data exemplified the challenges involved in obtaining reliable vaccination performance estimates even when a lot of data is available. Examples of these challenges included: discrepancies between data sources and the effects of data from large countries on global estimates. The session finalised by reflections from Nigeria pointing out the need to involve decision makers, and evidence-users in general, in the production of evidence.

In the last session, several very different initiatives for evidence synthesis were presented. A Swiss TPH collaborator showed an example where ‘real life’ qualitative evidence actually ‘forced’ the refocusing of a systematic review on the effects of interventions to improve information systems. Another example from the field of vaccination illustrated the evidence gaps in the production of systematic reviews and how other types of evidence may help to fill these gaps. Finally, the close links between systematic reviews and health regulations where shown in the case of environmental health in Switzerland.

The roundtable served to summarise the perspectives of presenters and stressed the need to accommodate evidence production, synthesis and dissemination to the real situations where policy makers need to react.

For further information see the Symposium's webpage or contact Xavier Bosch-Capblanch at x.bosch@unibas.ch

Written by Xavier Bosch-Capblanch, Group leader, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

Photo: PHISICC project