Thursday 23 December, 2021

The Higher Population Council and ShareNet Jordan held on Thursday a workshop on linking research, policy, decision-making and practice. The workshop targeted Jordanian university students who are members of ShareNet Jordan.

Director of Studies and Policies at HPC, Ali Al Mutlaq, stressed that the workshop aims to enhance university students’ awareness of factors that weaken the link between research and policy as well as factors that enhance the link between research and planning. He explained that the existing gap between researchers, users of research findings and planning officials leads to a weak link between research and development planning.

Mutlaq indicated that scientific research is a tool for growth, making future projections, and developing human resources and societies to achieve the desired goals if conducted based on needs and priorities and in a scientific manner that relies on accurate information. Mutlaq underpinned the need to incentivize the sharing of research findings with relevant actors and policy makers and engage them in the formulation of policy briefs.

During the workshop, Mutlaq introduced the SRH Platform (ShareNet Jordan), which aims to serve as an interactive online forum to support SRH research with partners from various sectors and facilitate the dissemination of SRH knowledge and building the capacity of key stakeholders in identifying knowledge gaps.

Assistant Secretary General for Technical Affairs at the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Ghadeer Al Haris, commended the partnership with ShareNet and HPC and highlighted the importance of utilizing research findings to support policy and programs. Haris explained that the Council utilized the outcomes of the ShareNet International- supported study on the “Status of SRH Services in Jordan” in amending the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2017, developing the policy paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2020-2030) and implementing SRH service delivery programs for persons with disabilities at accessible centers with reasonable accommodation.

Dr. Areej Othman from the University of Jordan talked about building scientific evidence in academic research to support SRH policymaking and how research can help develop policy and practice to facilitate better sharing of acquired knowledge with stakeholders, including practitioners, policymakers and the use of research findings in policy and practice.

Technical Director at HPC, Ghaleb Al Azzeh, discussed how policy papers are developed to support SRH policy and talked about building students capacities in developing policy briefs and bridging the gap between researchers and policy makers to facilitate the sharing of acquired knowledge with stakeholders (practitioners/ policy makers) and the utilization of research findings in policy and practice.

IT, Netweorks and Databases Supervisor at HPC, Engineer Rinad Al Ababneh, overviewed the contents of the ShareNet Jordan online knowledge platform as well as the platform for youth and sexual and reproductive health, which HPC is currently developing with funding support from UNFPA.