Barriers and facilitators of translating health research findings into policy in sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Despite efforts made by sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries to promote evidence-informed health policymaking, translating research evidence into policy remains a very challenging task fraught with many barriers. However, to achieve the goal of making more evidence-informed decisions to improve health, it is critical to overcome the barriers to the translation of research into policy. This paper provides an overview of the barriers and facilitators of translating research into policy in SSA countries to understand why research findings are sometimes not translated into policy and makes suggestions for improving the situation. Arksey and O’Malley’s five-step methodological framework guided the scoping review process. Primary research literature published in English between January 2010 and March 2021 was systematically searched using PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science and EBSCO host search engines. We focused on articles that reported on the barriers to and facilitators of translating research findings into policy. Two hundred and twenty-three articles were identified but 162 articles met the eligibility criteria. Of those that met the eligibility criteria, 73 were excluded after reading the title and abstract. After title and abstract screening, a further 70 articles were excluded thus remaining with only 19 articles from 16 SSA countries that were given a full review through data extraction and thematic analysis. The most common barriers identified were limited capacity by policymakers to use evidence, inaccessibility of research evidence, lack of high-quality usable evidence and use of policy briefs alone. Although translation of research findings into policy is fraught with a multitude of barriers, there are means to overcome them such as the availability of research results, strengthened capacity for evidence use, the establishment of a department of research within the Ministry of Health, appropriate packaging of research results, use of policy briefs, stakeholder feedback meetings and annual research dissemination conferences where policy briefs are discussed and distributed. Where funding is limited research should be policy driven instead of open-ended to avoid wasting resources. It is imperative to have a comprehensive approach to reduce barriers whilst enhancing facilitators that may improve the translation of research findings into policy.

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“…This could also explain why the participants considered the current evidence used to be relevant. Additionally, the weak researcher–policy-maker linkage further hampers the use of evidence from external academic institutions [ 24 , 37 ]. In contrast, another study among Nigerian health policy-makers showed that the participants used survey reports and research publications external to the institution such as Lancet papers in the issue-raising phase of policy-making [ 38 ].…”

“…Partnerships between researchers and policy-makers have been found to be suboptimal, with many identified barriers to effective knowledge translation and use of research evidence in decision-making by policy-makers. [ 21 , 23 , 24 ].…”

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