Below are extracts from an editorial by JBI, Cochrane, and Campbell, and a comment from me.
Editorial: Unlocking the power of global collaboration: building a stronger evidence ecosystem together
Jordan, Zoe, Welch, Vivian; Soares-Weiser, Karla
JBI Evidence Synthesis 22(6):p 947-948, June 2024. | DOI: 10.11124/JBIES-24-00073
https://journals.lww.com/jbisrir/fulltext/2024/06000/unlocking_the_power...
Across the global evidence ecosystem, numerous organizations share a common vision and mission: to promote evidence-based decision-making worldwide...
We find ourselves at a unique juncture where our respective global collaborative evidence networks (JBI, Cochrane, and Campbell) must reimagine the way we work together to facilitate and engage in multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and interdisciplinary research, dissemination, knowledge sharing, and knowledge translation to generate impact at scale across the evidence ecosystem. It is time to develop interagency collaboration as a coherent program rather than a series of standalone efforts...
A call to action...
By facilitating better global interagency collaboration, we enable the pooling of expertise and knowledge in the field of evidence-based practice, and the result is a more holistic and nuanced understanding of complex issues, leading to improved decision-making at both local and global levels. Examples of this may include much deeper collaboration on methodologies and standards for synthesis that reflect the diversity of evidence to respond to global challenges; a more coordinated approach to the prioritization of synthesis efforts to avoid duplication of effort; and better, more meaningful partnership on the contextualization or localization of evidence for policy and practice...
Collaboration across our global networks, not just within them, is now not merely a choice but a necessity in our increasingly interconnected world.
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COMMENT (NPW): Strengthening the global evidence ecosystem is indeed the challenge of our time. HIFA has been advocating for this since 2006 and HIFA's remit is specifically to strengthen communication, understanding and advocacy across the ecosystem (a remit that is far beyond our capacity). Greater strategic collaboration between JBI, Cochrane, and Campbell is welcome. But many of us would argue that collaboration needs to be far wider if we are to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information. The global evidence ecosystem includes all stakeholders: those who generate evidence, publish evidence, synthesise evidence, package evidence, find evidence, and apply evidence. We need to support collaboration and coordination across all these groups, towards our common goal of a world where every person has access to the reliable information they need to protect their own health and the health of others.
https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa/hifa-vision-mission-strategy
The central message of the HIFA global consultation (2023-4) is a call to action for WHO to explicitly champion the goal of 'a world where every person has access to the reliable information they need to protect their own health and the health of others'. WHO is uniquely placed to convene stakeholders with a view to develop a global strategy. We wait to hear WHO's response. If they are willing to lead, HIFA and other partners will support. This in turn would leverage the political and financial commitment that has so far been lacking. It would be a game-changer.
https://www.hifa.org/news/press-release-global-health-advocates-call-wor...
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
