Institutional roles, structures, funding and research partnerships towards evidence-informed policy-making: a multisector survey among policy-makers in Nigeria

• Published in: Health research policy and systems 2023-05, Vol.21 (1), p.36-36, Article 36
• Main Authors: Uneke, Chigozie Jesse, Okedo-Alex, Ijeoma Nkem, Akamike, Ifeyinwa Chizoba, Uneke, Bilikis Iyabo, Eze, Irene Ifeyinwa, Chukwu, Onyekachi Echefu, Otubo, Kingsley Igboji, Urochukwu, Henry C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Budgets; Careers; Collaboration; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Decision making; Evidence-informed policy-making; Female; Funding; Funds; Geopolitics; Grants; Health Policy; Humans; Institutional roles; Likert scale; Male; Nigeria; Organizations; Partnerships; Policy Making; Presidents; Questionnaires; Research grants; Research partnerships; Respondents; Statistics; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 1478-4505; 1478-4505
• DOI: 10.1186/s12961-023-00971-1

Evidence-informed policy-making aims to ensure that the best and most relevant evidence is systematically generated and used for policy-making. The aim of this study was to assess institutional structures, funding, policy-maker perspectives on researcher-policy-maker interactions and the use of research evidence in policy-making in five states in Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional study carried out among 209 participants from two geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Study participants included programme officers/secretaries, managers/department/facility heads and state coordinators/directors/presidents/chairpersons in various ministries and the National Assembly. A pretested semi-structured self-administered questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale was used to collect information on institutional structures for policy and policy-making in participants' organizations, the use of research evidence in policy and policy-making processes, and the status of funding for policy-relevant research in the participants' organizations. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 20 software. The majority of the respondents were older than 45 years (73.2%), were male (63.2) and had spent 5 years or less (74.6%) in their present position. The majority of the respondents' organizations had a policy in place on research involving all key stakeholders (63.6%), integration of stakeholders' views within the policy on research (58.9%) and a forum to coordinate the setting of research priorities (61.2%). A high mean score of 3.26 was found for the use of routine data generated from within the participants' organizations. Funding for policy-relevant research was captured in the budget (mean = 3.47) but was inadequate (mean = 2.53) and mostly donor-driven (mean = 3.64). Funding approval and release/access processes were also reported to be cumbersome, with mean scores of 3.74 and 3.89, respectively. The results showed that capacity existed among career policy-makers and the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics to advocate for internal funds (mean = 3.55) and to attract external funds such as grants (3.76) for policy-relevant research. Interaction as part of the priority-setting process (mean = 3.01) was the most highly rated form of policy-maker-researcher interaction, while long-term partnerships with researchers (mean = 2.61) had the lower mean score. The agreement that involving policy-makers in the planning and execution of programmes could enhance the evidence-to-polic