After a successful launch in four East African countries (Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Uganda) in 2024, the Alliance is supporting its second cohort of countries in West Africa through Partnerships for Stronger Knowledge Systems (KNOSA).
KNOSA seeks to strengthen national-level partnerships between policy and research organizations to increase capacities to develop and strengthen institutional mechanisms, cultures, incentive structures and trusted relationships to better enable the generation and use of locally relevant evidence in policy-making processes. KNOSA has three key objectives, to:
- Build research-to-policy networks across regional institutions;
- Generate new knowledge and practice on institutional approaches for research evidence use to strengthen national knowledge systems, and improve local evidence-informed policy and practice; and
- Increase scholarship on meso- and macro-level capacity strengthening in LMICs, by documenting and disseminating learning on capacity mechanisms for strengthening knowledge systems, both for global audiences and local practice.
Through an externally peer-review process, the Alliance is delighted to announce the four new teams:
Country Institutions involved Guinea Centre d’Excellence d’Afrique pour la Prévention et le Contrôle des Maladies Transmissibles (CEA-PCMT); Centre National de Formation et de Recherche en Santé Rural de Maferinyah, Ministère de la Santé et de l’Hygiene Publique; et Bureau de Stratégie et de Developpement (BSD), Ministère de la Santé et de l’Hygiene Publique Benin Institut Régional de Santé Publique Comlan Alfred Quenum (IRSP-CAQ); Ministère de la Santé Burkina Faso Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS); Direction de la Qualité des Soins et la Securité des patients (DQSS) Mali Afrique Francophone et Fragilité (AFRAFRA); Faculté de pharmacie de Bamako, et Faculté de medicine et d’odontostomatologie; Assemblée nationale au Mali (Conseil National de la Transition (CNT)); et Ministère de la Sante et du Developpement Social (MSDS). It is envisioned that in addition to strengthening in-country policy-to-research partnerships, KNOSA in West Africa will enable cross-country learnings and exchange, synergise with the East Africa cohort, and plug into existing regional networks, contributing to improved practice of policy-relevant evidence institutionalization.