The Management of Ebonyi State University wishes to announce the establishment of the African Institute for Health Policy & Health Systems Studies, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki Nigeria. Speaking at a pre-convocation press briefing on 22nd April 2015, the Vice-Chancellor, Engr. Prof. Francis Idike noted that the establishment of this institute is a deliberate effort by the Management of Ebonyi State University to institutionalize the science of Health Policy & Health Systems in Africa. The institute is one of the many outcomes of a research project funded by the Alliance for Health Policy & Systems Research of World Health Organization aimed at supporting national processes for evidence-informed policy-making and strengthening evidence-to-policy links(http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/news/2014/africahpsr/en/).

 

Following a competitive bid, the Health Policy & Systems Research Team (a Knowledge Translation Platform) of Ebonyi State University led by Dr. Chigozie Jesse Uneke secured a grant from the Alliance in 2009 to execute this project alongside institutions in Argentina, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Kyrgyzstan and Zambia. The institute is the first in Africa and has the mandate to promote health policy and health systems in the continent. The following will performed by the institute: Research; Post-graduate training (short term courses, PGD, Masters, PhD in Health Policy & Health Systems); public health policy service functions; networking/partnership; research dissemination (eg., publishing African Journal of Health Policy & Health Systems); policy making, implementation & evaluation functions; workshops/conferences; fellowships/awards; and academic exchange programmes.

 

Dr. Uneke’s research team is collaborating with the Alliance for Health Policy & Systems Research in the testing an innovative concept known as Policy Information Platform (PIP) which aims to provide access to existing policy-relevant knowledge in both indexed publications and grey literature and to ensure that relevant and reliable information is available in a user-friendly format for policy and management decisions (http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/news/2014/pipfeat/en/). The proposed PIP will be housed in the African Institute for Health Policy & Health Systems Studies, Ebonyi State University. The Senate of Ebonyi State University has approved the establishment of the institute and also directed the commencement of its training and research programmes.