K2P Center receives its third re-designation as a WHO Collaborating Center for Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice for another 4-year term (2023-2027).
The World Health Organization (WHO) has re-designated the Knowledge to Policy-K2P-Center as a WHO Collaborating Center for Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice. This designation, which is effective for a period of four years (2023-2027), is unique, since the K2P Center is the only WHO Collaborating Center for Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Lebanon and the region, and is the second WHO Collaborating Center of this kind globally after McMaster Health Forum in Canada.
The third re-designation marked by WHO’s reference number (LEB-6) stands as a recognition of K2P’s outstanding impact-oriented approach in terms of synthesizing and translating evidence on public health and engaging stakeholders to impact policy and action at the national and regional level.
Established by the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut, the K2P Center is mainly funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC). K2P is affiliated with the McMaster Health Forum in Canada and is supported by the Forum’s work in terms of some approaches and tools designed to influence policy agendas and actions. K2P Director is Dr. Fadi El-Jardali.
The K2P functions include as well identifying policy-relevant priorities for evidence synthesis through a specific priority setting method, and convening policy dialogue meetings. K2P also conducts targeted capacity building workshops for policymakers and stakeholders, researchers, civil society groups, NGOs, media and international agencies to increase the capacity of making better-informed decisions that will ultimately improve the overall health status of citizens.
The Terms of Reference for the upcoming re-designation are:
TOR1. Provision of technical contributions to inform the development of technical tools and products to support WHO’s activities towards enhancing Evidence-Informed Policy Making (EIPM) and its institutionalization in Member States
TOR2. Supporting WHO’s technical capacity building in Member States in knowledge translation processes and EIPM
TOR3. Provision of technical support to WHO’s knowledge translation processes