and colleagues share experiences and ideas to strengthen capacity for health research co-production in low and middle income countries on 21 February 2021 by guest. Protected by copyright.
Objectives: To explore and analyse factors that facilitate and inhibit the initiation and functioning of a national and transnational Community of Practice (CoP) for health policy and systems (HPS) and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) in West Africa and to identify lessons for CoP interventions in similar multilingual low and middle-income contexts.Design: A case study, with the case defined as processes, enablers and barriers to the initiation and functioning of a national and transnational CoP for HSP and RMNCAH in West Africa and drawing on a review and analysis of secondary data from the program, workshop, country team and project reports, and training sessions.Setting: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).Participants: Professionals from two Anglophone (Ghana and Sierra Leone) and four Francophone (Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger e Senegal) ECOWAS countries.Interventions: Training and mentoring of multi-disciplinary country teams supported by small research grants to undertake formative evaluation and advocacy of priority HPS and RMNCAH issues; support for CoP development within and across country teams.Results: The desire to learn from peers and mentors was a major enabler of the process. Human and financial resource availability, competing demands for time, communication in the context of a Francophone-Anglophone official lan-guage divide and the arrival of COVID-19 were all constraints.Conclusions: This study highlights the processes, achievements, and challenges of establishing country-level and transnational CoPs in West Africa. CoPs require sustained human and financial resource investments, communication and medium-to-long-term implementation support for sustainability and impact.
Objectives: To explore historical and contemporary factors and processes that influenced the emergence of WANEL and analyse how the formation process has influenced the network’s continued existence and sustainability and lesson for sub-regional health policy and systems research (HPSR) networking in Low –and –Middle –Income Countries (LMICs)Design: Qualitative explanatory case study which used process tracing to chart the formation and development of WANEL.Methods: Data was obtained through document reviews, semi-structured interviews, group discussions, and partici-pant observation. Data was analysed using thematic content analysis.Results: The emergence of WANEL was made possible by several factors, including support from a network of senior HPSR champions and institutions across West Africa; sustained funding from IDRC Canada, a reputable funder with a track record in supporting research capacity development in LMICs; learning and networking opportunities provided by CHEPSAA Emerging Leaders and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp Emerging Voices for Global Health initiative. Its formation followed a mix of emergent and engineered processes.Conclusion: WANEL is the first and currently the only sub-regional network for early and mid-career health policy and systems researchers and practitioners in West Africa. To ensure its long-term sustainability, the network needs to put in place mechanisms to constantly attract and develop the next generation of early and mid-career researchers, maintain links with senior researchers, strengthen its capacity for coordination and facilitation, and develop a plan for its long-term financial sustainability.
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