From: Facilitating factors and barriers to malaria research utilization for policy development in Malawi
 | Specific factors |
---|---|
Facilitating research uptake factors | |
 Institutional factors | Global influence on the emphasis of evidence driven policies |
The establishment of the department of Research in Ministry of Health | |
The revival of the Policy Development Unit (PDU) and the development of guidelines for policy development and analysis | |
The availability of the National Health Research Agenda (NHRA) | |
Availability of funding organization such as NCST, USPMI, and Global Fund | |
Establishment of the Knowledge Translation Platform (KTP) and the Knowledge Translation Unit (KTU) | |
Establishment of the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) in Malawi | |
Technical Working Groups to discuss research, and annual research dissemination conferences | |
Collaboration of the NMCP and research centres such as the Malaria Alert Centre (MAC) | |
 Personal factors | Local Researchers trained in various malaria research disciplines |
Growing number of researchers interested in knowledge translation | |
 Research factors | Availability of malaria research conducted in Malawi |
Availability of the NHRA that includes the malaria research agenda | |
A position already established by WHO | |
Barriers to research uptake | |
 Institutional factors | Lack of a platform on which researchers can engage with the public |
Lack of research capacity at the NMCP | |
Politics | |
 Personal factors–researchers | Lack of research communication skills to policy makers |
Focus on publishing and career advancement | |
Lack of collaboration of researchers with policy makers | |
Lack of collaboration among researchers of different disciplines | |
 Personal factors–policy makers | Lack of time to find and read research articles |
Inability of research synthesis | |
Lack of motivation and rigid to change | |
Mistrust of research findings | |
 Research factors | Research not addressing the country’s needs |
Funder driven research | |
Unknown WHO policy position | |
Access to malaria research and lack of a malaria research repository |