Informing Public Health Policies

There is a vast literature on HIV/AIDs prevention and control strategies but greater efforts are required to support the translation of this research evidence into policy. In particular, there is a need to understand how public health agencies learn and how researchers interact with policymakers. This presentation will share insights from a cross-national study on health policy formation in Africa to illuminate what steps need to be considered for shaping the future public health agenda. In particular it will address: 1) what do we know about supporting the use of data and research evidence by policymakers and stakeholders (i.e., supporting evidence-informed policymaking)? 2) what are the challenges that such efforts are striving to overcome? and 3) what are some innovative strategies that are being developed and evaluated? In addressing these issues, the presentation will as, of the first two presenters in the panel: what are the challenges that countries are likely to face in supporting the translation of new biomedical research and policy guidance into public policy? And it will ask of the next three prsenters: whether and how have national health policy directions changed over the last 30 years, why, and what does this tell us about the tensions between the use of research evidence and the dynamics of politics.