Understanding and Bridging Gaps in the Use of Evidence from Modeling for Evidence-Based Policy Making in Nigeria's Health System.

Abstract

Despite the use of modeling by Nigeria's disease control agency in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, modeling remains poorly used in the country's overall health sector.Although policy makers recognize the importance of evidence in making decisions, there are still pertinent concerns about the poor research culture of policy-making institutions and communication gaps that exist between researchers/modelers and policy makers.Nigeria's health system can be strengthened by improving the value and usage of scientific evidence generation through conscious efforts to institutionalize research culture in the health sector and bridge gaps between researchers/modelers and decision makers.