Casting the Net Wider: Communicating Research Evidence to a Broader Stakeholder Audience to Drive Policy and Practice Change insights by Dr. Jacklyne A. Ashubwe

My passion for effective communication predates my professional engagement in this field. As I pursue it presently professionally, I am energised to advocate for communication of scientific evidence because promoting research uptake for change in policy and practice is still underappreciated in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). My participation in the 2025 Cochrane Africa Indaba conference brought renewed hope that we are many advocates pursuing the same mission of mainstreaming the importance of evidence dissemination in addition to scientific journal publications.

During this Indaba, as researchers, we were encouraged to broaden the channels we pursue in communicating the research evidence. In particular, there was an emphasis on going back to the community that generously shared their data, which made the research objective achievable, to share the findings with them. There were several presentations which showcased that it is indeed possible to use plain English to communicate research evidence. This is not to minimise the value of scientific elements, but to sensitise researchers to be mindful of the audience receiving this communication in order to engage with them as opposed to isolating them. The eBASE Africa presentations enlightened us on how storytelling is an approach that has been used to convey scientific messages to the community stakeholders. Their mantra, “the comings of 2 rivers – storytelling and data science,” speaks of the viability of this communication approach. Two other speakers highlighted the importance of political savviness and building connections with policymakers when pursuing the adoption of research evidence, and how this is what yielded fruit in their quest to promote the uptake and utilisation of their research evidence. This calls for researchers to pursue a new skill set in the art of communicating scientific evidence.

Another category of stakeholders that is often forgotten in evidence communication is the decision-makers in government and at the organisational level. The Kibera Creative Arts aptly dramatised how the divide between researchers and policymakers is created and maintained by technical jargon and complex graphs. Despite the humour in the dramatisation, they also drove the message home with the sobering reality that the inaccessibility of the evidence may contribute to, for example, missed opportunities for communities to receive effective therapies, leading to poor treatment outcomes.

TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, implements the Structured Operational Research Training Initiative (SORT IT) in collaboration with many partners, including Medwise Solutions. In SORT IT, we build the capacity of early-career researchers to conduct operational research using programme data to identify gaps. We conclude these four-module training initiatives by equipping the researchers with skills to identify the appropriate audience for their research evidence and develop communication products tailored to the interests of their target audience(s). These communication products (plain language summary, technical PowerPoint and lightning presentations, and 1-minute/ elevator pitch) have targeted key messages topped up by concise and action-oriented recommendations for the specific audiences. Feedback that we have received from the alumni of these courses has highlighted the value they have perceived through the skills in not only conducting the operational research but going the “full nine-yards” to communicate what the research evidence means for the decision-makers and what actions they need to take to address the gaps in program implementation. Additionally, policy- and other decision-makers have echoed the sentiments of the researchers regarding the usefulness of making the research evidence easier to understand and apply when making decisions in their programs.

At a personal level, I also apply the principles that I teach, so that I don’t fall prey to the adage “preaching water while drinking wine”. When we conduct evaluations of public health projects, we endeavor to provide concise, action-oriented recommendations anchored on the evidence generated by our assessments. It has been gratifying to witness the uptake and utilisation of these recommendations by the evidence users within their programmes.

Despite the occasional feeling that advocating for research evidence communication is like speaking in an echo chamber, the Cochrane Africa Indaba 2025 conference re-ignited the “fire in my belly” that this is still an important message to keep on spreading abroad. It rejuvenated my commitment to soldier on as we continue to promote evidence-informed decision-making for sustainable health and economic development in LMICs.