SUPPORT-SYSTEMS (52) Meeting the information needs of health policy makers (5) Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Programme (2)

26 May, 2022

Dear Tarry

Thank you for sharing your experience with and work on the regional Mental Health Leadership and Advocacy Programme across countries in West Africa, and especially the National Stakeholder Councils. [ https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/support-systems-39-meeting-information-... ]

Would you be willing to share insight about the following questions?

- Who were represented on these councils and what process determined their representation?

- With respect to their governance, were these from the outset set up as advisory group sub-ordinate to the ministries of health or meant as an independent forum for deliberation on mental health policy, which later were given more formal designations later?

- Similar to Simon’s question, I would be keen on knowing what kinds of evidence and information the stakeholder councils relied on when advocating policy options, and if you are aware, the balance between evidence generated locally and evidence that have been synthesized globally.

If others on the HIFA forum have experiences similar to Tarry to share then I’d be very interested in hearing more.

Best wishes

Unni

HIFA profile: Unni Gopinathan is a Senior Scientist aat Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway. Unni is joint coordinator of the HIFA working group on SUPPORT-SYSTEMS: How can decision-making processes for health systems strengthening and universal health coverage be made more inclusive, responsive and accountable?

https://www.hifa.org/support/members/unni

https://www.hifa.org/projects/new-support-systems-how-can-decision-makin...

Email: Unni.Gopinathan AT fhi.no