Table 5 Summary of participants’ responses regarding areas of health policy information needs, capacity constraints and formats in which policy-relevant information could be made accessible

(1) Public health law

(2) Personnel/health administration

(3) Monitoring and supervision of healthcare delivery

(4) Health economics, budget and resource management

(5) Health insurance

(6) Adolescent health

(7) Reproductive health

(8) Health policy advocacy

(9) Family planning

(10) Programme planning and implementation

(11) Primary healthcare

(1) Lack of credible, context-specific evidence

(2) Government’s poor attitude towards policy-relevant evidence

(3) Difficulty in finding suitable evidence

(4) Inadequate format for presentation of evidence

(5) Poor dissemination of evidence

(6) Lack of skill in accessing evidence and policy-relevant information

(7) Poor internet access at workplaces

(8) Inadequate ICT knowledge and skill

(9) Lack of capacity to understand evidence that is not presented plainly

(10) Lack of adequate capacity to transform evidence into policy

(1) Policy dialogue

(2) Proposal writing/memoranda

(3) Policy formulation

(4) Data analysis

(5) Monthly/annual planning meetings

(6) Monitoring/evaluation/impact assessment

(7) Resource management

(8) Development of future work plans

(9) Training of staff

(10) Programme implementation

(11) Forecasting

(1) Systematic reviews

(2) Expert information

(3) Pilot studies

(4) Case studies

(5) National surveys

(6) Monthly/annual reports

(7) Journals/bulletins

(8) Policy briefs

(9) Executive summaries

(10) Policy advocacy

(11) Rapid response mechanism/timely information

(12) Involvement of policy-makers in research