How to write a policy brief that matters
How do you move your research from the laboratory, the field, the research journal, the scientific conference and into the hands of people and organizations that can put it to practical use?
With a well written policy brief research evidence can be used to inform decision-making. A policy brief presents a concise summary of information that can help readers understand and likely make decisions about program management or government policies. Policy briefs give objective summaries of relevant research, suggest possible policy options, or go even further and argue for particular courses of action.
Together with Professor Elton Kisanga from Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo) and Dr. Leonard Mboera from SACIDS Foundation for One Health, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Associate Professor Pascal Magnussen from the DRUGS Team at CMP facilitated a workshop at KCMUCo in Tanzania about the art of communicating research into policy briefs and to the general audience.
The three professors taught the participants how to write a policy brief that matters, i.e. how knowledge translation is concerned not only with the dissemination of research results, but especially with their use and application.
The two gentlemen below are Professor Elton Kisanga, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo) (left) and Dr. Leonard Mboera from SACIDS Foundation for One Health, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
The workshop was a great success. Many of the participants coming from both Tanzania, Zanzibar and Denmark found it both enlightening and an eye opener. They went home thinking differently and more qualified to transform their research findings into a policy brief. The "practical user" might being a policy maker, a health planner or a health provider.
PhD Student Emma Hocke from CMP, University of Copenhagen (mid), together with Fatma Hamid Saleh (right) from State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) and PhD Student in the FFU/Danida funded PreVBD project, Neema Kulaya, from KCMUCo (left) discussing the art of writing a policy brief that will be used by e.g. a health provider, a community health planner or a policy maker.
The workshop 'Policy Brief Writeshop' held in May 2022 was part of the 'Building Stronger Universities'-program that aims at increasing the capacity of African universities in selected Danida priority countries to undertake teaching, research and outreach with the overall objective to generate and apply new knowledge to solve priority development challenges.
Mt. Kilimanjaro showing in the horizon of Moshi, where Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College is placed.