Table 1 Phases of development of the Policy Information Platform (PIP) in Nigeria
Phase | Key activities | Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Consultation with policy-makers and identification of priority policy issues | Interaction with key policy-makers representing various areas of the policy-making sector in Nigeria to identify priorities in the health policy-making process | Key policy priority areas identified by policy-makers (see Table 3) |
Stakeholder engagement workshop and formal launch of PIP | Formal presentation of the PIP Nigeria website and administration of structured questionnaire to elicit information to aid in the operational effectiveness of the platform | Information generated by questionnaire: (1) areas of health policy information needs; (2) challenges and capacity constraints in accessing evidence for policy-making; (3) how evidence is utilised in the policy-making; (4) suggested ways and formats in which policy-relevant information can be made easily available and accessible to policy-makers (see Table 5) |
Extraction of policy-relevant publications and development of PIP website | Publication extraction process using PubMed, Google Scholar, etc. Extracted publications classified into five main categories: (1) scientific articles, (2) policy briefs, (3) evaluation reports, (4) grey literature and (5) health policy documents | Policy-relevant publications extracted: scientific articles (n = 126), policy briefs (n = 46), evaluation reports (n = 23), grey literature (n = 201), health policy documents (n = 85) (see Fig. 1) |
Promotion of PIP website at national and state health policy meetings | Presentation of the PIP during a stakeholder engagement event organised by West African Health Organization in Abuja in October 2015 and two state meetings in Ebonyi State in November 2015 and April 2016 | Participants (n = 195) made aware of the existence of the PIP and given first-hand information on how to use it |
Evaluation of the PIP using stakeholder survey questionnaire | Stakeholder evaluation survey undertaken via email 6 months after establishment of the PIP | Of 195 individuals contacted via email with survey questionnaire, 30 (15.4%) provided a response; respondents commended the PIP initiative and made suggestions for its improvement and sustenance |