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The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners today launched an online platform to promote the exchange of evidence and experiences among countries in the African region. By working to foster evidence-based decision-making in an effort to redesign health service delivery, the initiative is expected to boost countries’ health system resilience efforts.
The African Health Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (AHOP) Platform aims to facilitate cross-country learning and accelerate the adoption of high-quality evidence and experiences that reflect the complexity and diversity of the region. This knowledge translation effort will ultimately help strengthen the design and performance of national and regional health systems.
“This is a significant step. A lot of data and research is produced in Africa, but it is not always shared,” said Dr Humphrey Karamagi, leader of the data, analysis and knowledge management team at the WHO Regional Office for Africa. . “The exchange of experiences that occurs between countries on all kinds of health conditions could be used to provide services that people are really asking for.”
Leading public health research institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Senegal are generating knowledge by collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing evidence for use by national and regional decision-makers. Through the frequent engagement and engagement of policy makers, AHOP seeks to respond to policy needs with timely support and reliable evidence designed and packaged in a way that is useful and usable for policy makers. policies.
Products range from country-specific profiles covering health systems and their performance to policy briefs on current issues that require evidence to guide decision-making. The number of national centers is expected to expand rapidly to incorporate more countries and institutions.
A consortium of technical partners, including the London School of Economics and Political Science and the European Observatory for Health Systems and Policies, supports national centers in producing locally-led analyzes. The WHO Regional Office for Africa ensures the regional relevance of the different analyzes.
AHOP complements the WHO Integrated African Health Observatory (iAHO), which is currently the most comprehensive and free-to-access online repository for health data, analysis and knowledge for decision makers, researchers, stakeholders and citizens of the region.
“By adding the knowledge component, we want to provide a one-stop-shop that will bridge the gap between research and decision-makers to accelerate progress toward accessing affordable, quality health services,” said Dr. Karamagi.
This joint initiative is supported by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
