“Evidence is an Absolutely Essential Ingredient”: Using the World EBHC Day to Engage Stakeholders for Evidence-Based Practice in Cameroon.

For three years now, the world has been celebrating World Evidence-Based Healthcare Day on 20 October each year. For this year's celebration, eBASE Africa, Cochrane Cameroon, CDBPS-H, and PEERS Cameroon have come together to officially celebrate this day for the first time in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Speakers of the workshop. Penka, Dr. Patrick Okwen, Prof. Ongolo Zogo, and Ongolo Miria,

The need for evidence in practice cannot be overemphasized and more so for LMICs. While LMICs have struggled to meet evidence needs, the world has risen in solidarity to support them in their struggle. Collaborations like Cochrane, Campbell, JBI, and African Evidence Network have assisted with human and financial capacities. This has generated a cream of evidence synthesizers and networks within the continent. However, the use of evidence in policy, practice, and public life is still a challenge. World EBHC Day provides a moment for which stakeholders can stop to reflect and take scores of their policies, practices, behaviors, and choices. Prof Ongolo Zogo believes, “It is absolutely essential for us as health professionals to be part of a partnership that enables us to make more informed choices.” He adds, “Evidence is an essential ingredient if we are to achieve equity in our environment."

For this year's celebration, which was themed “Partnership for a Purpose”, eBASE, and its partners organized a bilingual (French and English) awareness-raising workshop on evidence-based healthcare at the Central Hospital of Yaounde, Cameroon, which brought together an audience of 30 healthcare stakeholders, including clinicians, policymakers, parliamentarians, journalists, medical students, and citizens. 
The workshop aimed to promote the use of evidence-based healthcare practices in Cameroon. The workshop featured presentations and discussions on the importance of evidence-based healthcare practices and practical examples of how they can be implemented in the Cameroonian healthcare system. Participants were encouraged to share their experiences and ideas for improving healthcare delivery in the country and encourage collaboration between different stakeholders in the healthcare sector. 
Interesting at this event is the summary given by the youth parliamentarian Hon. Koum William. He said, “I now know my preferences count for better healthcare outcomes”.  According to him, evidence-based healthcare should be institutionalized. Our assessment is that policymakers are beginning to be more aware of the importance and more widely celebrated days will have a rippling effect.

The workshop accomplished its goal of increasing people's familiarity with health care based on evidence. Health professionals, researchers, medical students, librarians, journalists, citizens, youth parliamentarians, and civil society organizations were among those exposed to the term "evidence-based health care" as part of this awareness-raising effort.  "I did not know there was such a concept as evidence-based health care," stated one of the participants. I have something new to share with the family. 
The national web channel (CRTV Web) shared the workshop recap on their website, Facebook and Twitter, thus expanding the event's reach. The national radio station (CRTV Radio) also covered the event, broadcasting news to all 10 regions of Cameroon.
Abossolo Oba, a journalist for CRTV Radio, declared that the training he received was invaluable to his professional development.  He continued, saying, "A journalist's culture is his open mind. Every new idea we grasp strengthens our position and allows us to do more. The journalist not only informs but also teaches, serving as a bridge between the general public and the experts in a given sector. As a result, I must play a part. At the very least, in terms of spreading the word and increasing exposure." 
Through this partnership, eBASE Africa and its partners hope to improve healthcare outcomes and contribute to the development of a more efficient and effective healthcare system in sub-Saharan Africa.

For the next World EBHC Day, eBASE plans a more significant event that will include at least one other Francophone country. We also plan to have the day celebrated in local languages including Hausa, Fulfulde, and Lingala.