Hawassa - February 13, 2024 (NIPN/EPHI) - The four-day training and experience sharing workshop organized by the National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN-Ethiopia), a program hosted by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), wound up last Thursday, February 13, 2025.
NIPN-Ethiopia coordinator, Dr. Aregash Samuel, called upon the trainees and participants to diligently apply what they gained from the training. She stated in an exclusive discussion she had with NIPN’s communication team that the training was designed to enhance the expertise of researchers and other professionals in their key tasks, including producing research articles and policy briefs, analyzing data, preparing systematic reviews, utilizing secondary data, and conducting effective communication.
“What we have gained here helps us conduct our research more effectively and acceptably. To ensure a research document meets its objectives, it must be prepared with great care. We have learned invaluable lessons that must be applied to ensure our research achieves its objectives. Poorly written research documents, policy briefs, and other materials will never receive due attention from the relevant bodies or target audience. We are in a time of competition. To succeed, we must work smartly. I urge my fellow researchers and experts to pay attention to this,” Dr. Aregash stated.
She further said that failing to follow the procedure we learned during the training can lead to communication breakdown. According to her, even a superb research document may not be published due to poor presentation or communication. “The communication between the publisher and the researcher should be conducted wisely. Failing to adhere to standard rules, regulations, advice and procedures can lead to the rejection of the research article,” she said.
Dr. Aregash extended her appreciation to those involved in the training and experience-sharing workshop. “I truly appreciate those who took the time to prepare for this wonderful training workshop. My thanks also go to those who showed patience in staying the entire duration and made the workshop interactive,” she said.
Some participants mentioned that the time allocated for the training session was insufficient to cover all the necessary topics. They recommended that the NIPN organizing team allocate more time when planning such important training.
Professionals with ample experience in the field provided the training. Policy questions formulation, data repository, conducting a rapid review, secondary data analytic approaches, using software for qualitative data analysis, coding qualitative data, qualitative data analysis, evidence in communication, evidence synthesis, clean and concise messages, policy brief, working on evidence synthesis, and considering gender sensitivity while conducting research are among the topics covered in the training and experience sharing workshop.
Twenty-two senior researchers, data experts, university instructors, and other professionals drawn from sub-national Public Health Institutes, universities, EPHI, the International Food Policy Research Institute, NIPN-Ethiopia, and GIZ attended the training and experience sharing workshop held at Central Hotel, Hawassa City. (NIPN/EPHI)
