Knowledge Synthesis

PMNCH uses its knowledge synthesis function to facilitate the increased use of evidence and policy analysis by partners, decision-makers and other actors to drive more responsive and equity-enhancing policy, financing and service delivery. Knowledge synthesis includes deliverables that synthesize and translate knowledge and evidence for advocacy and influencing purposes, tailored to need and audience demand, such as digital toolkits, compendiums, policy briefs, reports and articles. PMNCH promotes alignment and consensus among partners on evidence-based messaging, as well as adapting and translating policy-relevant evidence into resources and tools fit for advocacy purposes.

In 2021, to increase the uptake of knowledge in advocacy efforts driven by our partners, PMNCH synthesized, translated, curated and packaged evidence across the three PMNCH focus areas, as well as key cross-cutting issues such as COVID-19 and women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health in humanitarian and fragile settings.

We amplified our constituencies’ resources, knowledge and advocacy on key issues relating to women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being, using policy-relevant and user-friendly formats, including through digital approaches.

PMNCH also worked with partners in developing several knowledge, policy and advocacy briefs in 2021, translating evidence for advocacy into easily accessible and digestible formats. One example is the action brief Rise, Respond, Recover, which aims to promote coordinated action by global and national partners.

Similarly, to promote the uptake of robust and contextualized knowledge for multistakeholder engagement and policy dialogue on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health in conflict settings, PMNCH worked with local partners to produce a series of papers published in The Lancet and to organize three regional workshops: the first focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan; the second on Jordan, Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen; and the third on Mali and Nigeria.

To support our partners in advancing the COVID-19 advocacy campaign goals and combating misinformation, PMNCH employed knowledge translation approaches to communicate and package emerging guidance on mitigating the direct and indirect negative impacts of COVID-19 on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being. Products included a living compendium, a digital series of toolkits and a self-care video series. These knowledge resources played an essential role in making women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being explicit in response and recovery plans.

They were also popular with the public: for example, the self-care animated video series, developed in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO and UN Women and available in the six UN languages, was viewed more than 115 million times through social media platforms such as Facebook by the end of 2021.

PMNCH also took an active role in synthesizing the views and voices of communities during COVID-19 through the document Finding Hope: Experiences of women, children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic in their own words, which provides critical evidence to inform partners’ advocacy.