In celebration of its first anniversary, the Global Evidence Synthesis Initiative (GESI) Secretariat, hosted by the Centre for Systematic Reviews on Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) announced the first of its kind Global Network. The GESI Network consists of 38 Evidence Synthesis centers form 24 Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) from across the globe. The GESI Network aims to serve as a platform for its Centers to share expertise and experiences and facilitate collaborations between them. The Network will allow GESI to encourage the use of Evidence Synthesis and support practice and policy in different disciplines including, but not limited to, Agriculture, Economics, Education, Environment, and Health.
As a first series of events, the Secretariat hosted a seminar and a workshop on the use of evidence synthesis in the environmental field. Moreover, the GESI Secretariat launched its webinar series, in collaboration with a first series of events, the Secretariat hosted a seminar and a workshop on the use of evidence synthesis in the environmental field. Moreover, the GESI Secretariat launched its webinar series, in collaboration with Cochrane Live Learning. The first webinar was held on July the 7th on "Making Systematic Reviews Policy Relevant" delivered by Dr. John Lavis, Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Informed Health Systems at McMaster University.
"One of our explicit aims as researchers and promoters of health is to develop policy making processes that integrate evidence synthesis and knowledge translation into actual implementation. To drive change, we have to enforce more production and use of evidence that is relevant to the context of LMICs and turn evidence into practice and policy making," said AUB Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh.
The GESI secretariat plans on attending the Global Evidence Summit in Cape Town this September, to showcase its work and attract potential funders. The Summit will also be a chance for the Secretariat to personally meet its network members.
“Celebrating the first anniversary of GESI’s Secretariat at AUB is further evidence to the power of collaboration across disciplines to promote evidence-based health policies and practices in LMICs,” stated Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Iman Nuwayhid.
The Global Evidence Synthesis Initiative (GESI) was launched to enhance the capacity of Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in synthesizing evidence and using synthesized evidence to support practice and policy. GESI will achieve these aims through supporting Evidence Synthesis Centers in different countries and across disciplines in LMICs.
GESI founding organizations include Cochrane (previously the Cochrane Collaboration), the Campbell Collaboration, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR), the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the EPPI-Centre, the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE), the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).
GESI selected, through a competitive process, the Center for Systematic Reviews on Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon to host its secretariat. The GESI secretariat was established in June 2016, and it reports to a GESI governance group that represents GESI’s founding organizations.