ADDIS ABABA July 22, 2023 (NIPN/EPHI) - A three-day training-workshop organized on Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis skills wound up here last Wednesday, 19th July 2023. The training, organized jointly by National Information Platforms for Nutrition (NIPN), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) and Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), with the aim of enhancing the research skills of the trainees. The training will enable them all to synthesize evidence in their research activities, according to a trainer, Tadesse Zerfu (PhD.)
Dr. Tadesse Zerfu, a research fellow with IFPRI, said that the training will enable trainee researchers to identify, select and synthesize available evidence in a way that is understandable or available for policy or decision makers.
The training, the first of its kind to be given at EPHI, will continue in the future, according to Dr. Tadess. Speaking of the methodology, Dr. Tadesse said that the training was given through discussion and practical appraisals. “The training was given in the form of lectures, discussion and practical orientation. It was a kind of learning by doing,” Tadesse said. Points were discussed among the trainees who were teamed up into four groups with every group made to produce a presentation on the assignment given on systematic review and meta-analysis, according to Dr. Tadesse.
“At the end of the training, trainees are expected to produce a manuscript. This will be done to appraise their status after a month,” Tadesse said adding that giving such type of interactive and timely training which is of paramount importance for researchers will continue in the future.
Trainees said that similar training-workshop that would help enhance researchers’ capacity should be given regularly. Beza Teshome, NIPN Data Manager and Researcher with EPHI, said that the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis training is very important as it enables professionals engaged in different research projects to review papers scientifically.
“It provides insight on how to draft a research topic, select a methodology, search multiple articles related to the topic and analyze a combined research pieces using STATA software. It is eye-opening for doing systematic reviews and meta-analyses,” Beza said.
She further said that the training also introduces the current research software, including Covidence and Cochrane and how to use the modest excel document.
Archana Sarkar, Advisor-NIPN at GIZ also participated in the training by sharing her experience in developing concepts of Meta-Analysis (qualitative analysis).
Over 20 trainee researchers from the NIPN team and Food Science and Nutrition Research Directorate of EPHI including those drawn from IFPRI participated in the training workshop which was held from 17 to 19 July 2023 at the premises of EPHI. (NIPN/EPHI).
