Global Evidence, Local Adaptation project (GELA)

Overall aim

The Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) 3-year project aims to increase decision makers’ capacity to use global research evidence to develop locally relevant clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for newborn and child health.

The GELA project will support decision makers in Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa, and will build on and add value to the large scale programme of global child health CPG development lead by the World Health Organization (WHO) with adaptation and implementation lead by the WHO Afro regional office and national ministries.

The specific objectives are to

ENGAGE: Identify child and newborn priority topics and the capacity needs of guideline panels.

SYNTHESISE: Support policy makers and researchers to find, appraise and use best-available systematic reviews and guidelines.

DECIDE: Support guideline panels’ capacity to contextualise global evidence using transparent, digitally supported standards and WHO methods for guideline development.

SHARE: Disseminate and communicate guideline recommendations to healthcare providers and the public using innovative and user-friendly formats and digital platforms.

LEARN: Strengthen capacity of researchers and policy makers for all aspects of guideline development, adaptation and dissemination.

EVALUATE: Monitor and evaluate policy makers’ experiences of this approach, preferences for receiving evidence, capacity development and overall impact of the project on evidence-informed decision-making processes.

The GELA project is a partnership coordinated by Cochrane South Africa (SA), South African Medical Research Council along with partners from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Western Norway University of Applied Science, Stellenbosch University (South Africa), Cochrane Nigeria at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Malawi), Cochrane and the Stiftelsen MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem (Norway).

The CEBHC leads the work packages on Synthesizing and Learning.

Funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). A public-public partnership between countries in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, supported by the European Union. EDCTP focuses on enhancing research capacity and accelerating the development of new or improved medical interventions for the identification, treatment and prevention of poverty-related infectious diseases, including emerging and re-emerging diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, through all phases of clinical trials, with emphasis on phase II and III trials.

Links:

Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) | Cochrane Africa

Press release:

News – Grant to enhance evidence-informed guidelines… (sun.ac.za)