Twenty-four researchers from EfD centers participated in a policy engagement and science communication training program in 2023. It included five online sessions in May and June and a two-day workshop in Ghana. It provided the participants with a wide range of tools and methods, essential to have an impact on society. 

EfD aims not only to produce high-level research but also to make it easily available for policymakers and other stakeholders in society to support evidence-based policies. This requires systematic and efficient stakeholder engagement, as well as communication skills. 

“The main goal of the training initiative is to build a community of practice of policy engagement and science communication to raise the impact of the EfD network,” said Daniel Slunge, EfD Policy Engagement Director, and one of the workshop’s facilitators. 

The online sessions included topics such as opportunities and risks with policy engagement, models and strategies, evaluating your impact, tools for engagement, and communication with a non-scientific audience. Individual work and peer coaching were also part of the program. 

The live sessions in Ghana focused on communication skills such as press releases, policy briefs, media interviews, oral presentations, and social media. There were presentations of individual and group assignments, hands-on exercises, and presentations of highly relevant case studies. The workshop also featured a session on AI. 

EfD Ghana Center Director Wisdom Akpalu and Rebecca Sackey-Mensah of the Fisheries Commission presented an inspiring case of how research-policy interaction can be very constructive and lead to the implementation of informed and sustainable policies and practices. 

“I learned a lot about tools and techniques to communicate research findings, how to work with journalists, and plan my research to involve policymakers from the outset and make my research more useful,” commented Hoa Le Dang, course participant from EfD Vietnam.