CDT-Africa in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) organized a capacity building workshop on evidence-informed health policy making process from 13-14 May 2023 for the newly established Policy, Strategy and Research Office of the MoH. The workshop was led by the Unit for Health Evidence and Policy of CDT-Africa.

The Policy, Strategy and Research Office of the Ministry of Health is a newly established Lead Executive Office with an objective to nationally lead and coordinate health research, facilitate evidence translation to policy and standardize policies and strategies development.

In his opening remark to the workshop, The Office's Lead Executive Officer, Dr. Abraham Alemayehu, underscored the commitment of the Office and the Ministry to engage key actors in health research and ensure that these research outputs  contribute to health policy making. The office is established to fill this gap. Dr Abraham appreciated the contribution of CDT-Africa as a partner to build the capacity of this newly established Lead Executive Office.

Professor Abebaw Fekadu, CDT-Africa Centre Leader appreciated the partnership with MoH considering the immense role the ministry plays in the health sector. Noting the fact that significant resources are invested globally on research and evidence generation but that just a very small fraction of evidence generated is utilized to inform policy and healthcare practice, Professor Abebaw highlighted CDT-Africa’s work to enhance the utility of research and to support the effort to ensure that health policies must be informed by high-quality and reliable evidence.  He also emphasized that, as a Centre of Excellence established under the Addis Ababa University, CDT-Africa values excellence and its role as a new path for transformational leadership.

Topics on health policy design and implementation, policy analysis and policy dialogue approaches, Ethiopian health policy, and evidence informed health policymaking were thoroughly explored and discussing during the two days training.