Abstract: 12th National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal - 10-12 April 2026

Abstract

1. Plenary Session: 1.1 Health Research Governance for Evidence-Informed Decision Making

Abstract: Nepal’s health sector continues to face a clear gap between research generation and its actual use in policy and practice. Although multiple institutions, such as the Department of Health Services, Policy Research Institute, National Statistics Office and Medical Education Commission produce evidence, this work is often fragmented, varies in quality, and is not always aligned with policy needs. Strengthening health research governance encompassing the rules, institutions, processes, and capacities that guide how research is produced, shared, funded, regulated, and applied, is therefore essential to bridging this know–do gap and promoting evidence-informed decision-making in Nepal. This plenary session will bring together government stakeholders and sectoral experts with three main objectives. First, it highlighted real-world examples where evidence successfully informed policy, as well as cases where it did not, identifying key enabling factors and persistent barriers such as timing, relevance, political economy dynamics, resource constraints, and limited implementation capacity. Second, it examined the quality and relevance of research outputs, including common methodological and reporting weaknesses, gaps in data quality assurance and reproducibility, and the limited engagement between researchers, policymakers, and implementers during the early stages of research design. Third, it explored governance and system-level challenges that hinder evidence uptake, such as unclear and uncoordinated priority-setting processes, lack of transparency, and the absence or weakness of formal mechanisms, like evidence repositories, review platforms, and requirements for policy briefs that connect research outputs to policymaking.