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Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa

Dialogue and exchange between researchers and policy personnel may increase the use of research evidence in policy. We piloted and evaluated a programme of formalised dialogue between researchers and provincial health policymakers in South Africa, called the buddying programme. An external evaluatio...

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Autores principales: Young, Taryn, Shearer, Jessica C, Naude, Celeste, Kredo, Tamara, Wiysonge, Charles S, Garner, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30613428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001130
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author Young, Taryn
Shearer, Jessica C
Naude, Celeste
Kredo, Tamara
Wiysonge, Charles S
Garner, Paul
author_facet Young, Taryn
Shearer, Jessica C
Naude, Celeste
Kredo, Tamara
Wiysonge, Charles S
Garner, Paul
author_sort Young, Taryn
collection PubMed
description Dialogue and exchange between researchers and policy personnel may increase the use of research evidence in policy. We piloted and evaluated a programme of formalised dialogue between researchers and provincial health policymakers in South Africa, called the buddying programme. An external evaluation examined implementation and short-term impact, drawing on documents, in-depth interviews with policymakers, a researcher buddies focus group and our own reflection on what we learnt. We set up buddying with seven policymakers and five researchers on six policy questions. Researchers knew little about policymaking or needs of policymakers. Policymakers respected the contact with researchers, respected researchers’ objectivity and appreciated the formalised approach. Having policymaker champions facilitated the dialogue. Scenarios for policy questions and use were different. One topic was at problem identification stage (contraceptives and HIV risk), four at policy formulation stage (healthy lifestyles, chronic illness medication adherence, integrated care of chronic illness and maternal transmission of HIV to infants) and one at implementation stage (task shifting). Research evidence were used to identify or solve a policy problem (two scenarios), to legitimise a predetermined policy position (three scenarios) or the evidence indirectly influenced the policy (one scenario). The formalised dialogue required in this structured buddying programme took time and commitment from both sides. The programme illustrated the importance of researchers listening, and policymakers understanding what research can offer. Both parties recognised that the structured buddying made the dialogue happen. Often the evidence was helpful in supporting provincial policy decisions that were in the roll-out phase from the national government.
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spelling pubmed-63040972019-01-04 Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa Young, Taryn Shearer, Jessica C Naude, Celeste Kredo, Tamara Wiysonge, Charles S Garner, Paul BMJ Glob Health Practice Dialogue and exchange between researchers and policy personnel may increase the use of research evidence in policy. We piloted and evaluated a programme of formalised dialogue between researchers and provincial health policymakers in South Africa, called the buddying programme. An external evaluation examined implementation and short-term impact, drawing on documents, in-depth interviews with policymakers, a researcher buddies focus group and our own reflection on what we learnt. We set up buddying with seven policymakers and five researchers on six policy questions. Researchers knew little about policymaking or needs of policymakers. Policymakers respected the contact with researchers, respected researchers’ objectivity and appreciated the formalised approach. Having policymaker champions facilitated the dialogue. Scenarios for policy questions and use were different. One topic was at problem identification stage (contraceptives and HIV risk), four at policy formulation stage (healthy lifestyles, chronic illness medication adherence, integrated care of chronic illness and maternal transmission of HIV to infants) and one at implementation stage (task shifting). Research evidence were used to identify or solve a policy problem (two scenarios), to legitimise a predetermined policy position (three scenarios) or the evidence indirectly influenced the policy (one scenario). The formalised dialogue required in this structured buddying programme took time and commitment from both sides. The programme illustrated the importance of researchers listening, and policymakers understanding what research can offer. Both parties recognised that the structured buddying made the dialogue happen. Often the evidence was helpful in supporting provincial policy decisions that were in the roll-out phase from the national government. BMJ Publishing Group 2018-12-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6304097/ /pubmed/30613428 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001130 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Practice
Young, Taryn
Shearer, Jessica C
Naude, Celeste
Kredo, Tamara
Wiysonge, Charles S
Garner, Paul
Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa
title Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa
title_full Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa
title_fullStr Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa
title_short Researcher and policymaker dialogue: the Policy BUDDIES Project in Western Cape Province, South Africa
title_sort researcher and policymaker dialogue: the policy buddies project in western cape province, south africa
topic Practice
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30613428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001130
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