promoting researchers and policy-makers collaboration in evidence-informed policy-making in nigeria: outcome of a two-way secondment model between university and health ministry

Background: there is need to strengthen institutions and mechanisms that can more systematically promote interactions between researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders who can influence the uptake of research findings. in this article, we report the outcome of a two-way secondment model between ebonyi state university (ebsu) and ebonyi state ministry of health (esmoh) in nigeria as an innovative collaborative strategy to promote capacity enhancement for evidence-to-policy-to-action. methods: this study was an exploratory design with a quantitative cross-sectional survey technique. a secondment memorandum of understanding (mou) was signed between heads of ebsu and esmoh. the secondment program lasted six months with ten researchers and ten policy-makers spending up to two days per week in each other’s organization. the secondee researchers got engaged in policy-making and implementation activities in esmoh, while the policy-maker secondees got involved in research activities in ebsu. secondees evidence-to-policy capacity enhancement meetings were held and questionnaires designed in 5-point likert scale were used to assess their impact. results: the secondee policy-makers and researchers admitted having considerable knowledge of secondment with mean ratings (mnrs) of 3.40 and 3.74 respectively on the 5 points scale. secondment appeared to be more common in the policy-makers’ organization (mnrs: 2.80-3.07) than in the researchers’ institution (mnrs: 2.58-2.84). the secondee policy-makers participated in some academic and research activities including serving in research ethics committee in ebsu and provided policy-making perspective to the activities. the secondee researchers supported the policy-making process in esmoh through policy advisory roles, and provided capacity enhancement for staff of the ministry on the use of research evidence in policy-making. there was a noteworthy increase on knowledge of policy analysis and contextualization among the secondees ranging from 20.7% to 50.4% and 31.3% to 42.8% respectively following a training session. a society for health policy research and knowledge translation was established by mutual agreement of secondees as a platform to permanently institutionalize the collaboration. conclusion: the outcome of this study clearly suggests that secondment has great potential in promoting evidence informed policy-making and merits further consideration.