LSTM is leading the K4D response in publishing daily COVID-19 Health Evidence Summaries to signpost DFID and other UK government departments to the latest relevant evidence and discourse on COVID-19 to inform and support their fight against this pandemic and its consequences.
These summaries reach out across the academic and professional community to capture relevant evolving evidence to help DFID in their evidence-informed decisions.
LSTM’s Dr Kerry Millington, who writes these summaries, says “This is an example of how a rapid response research service can be flexible and adapt quickly to help DFID and other government departments learn more about this virus and wider impacts every day. These summaries will show the pattern of building evidence relevant to those facing this pandemic in low and middle-income countries.”
The Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development Programme (K4D) supports the use of learning and evidence to improve the impact of development policy and programmes. It is funded by UK aid and is designed to assist the Department for International Development (DFID) and other UK government departments and partners to be innovative and responsive to rapidly changing and complex development challenges. LSTM is a partner in this consortium led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK.
Paul Knipe, K4D Programme Manager at IDS, said: “These summaries are proving to be a useful resource for DFID and are also having wider engagement across the development network. K4D has seen a big increase in its daily twitter statistics since the daily summaries began”
The K4D COVID-19 Health Evidence Summaries can be found within the K4D COVID-19 Resource Hub which brings together learning across DFID and the UK Government to support their fight against COVID-19 and its consequences.
These summaries are publicly available to be transparent and available to the wider development community.
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LSTM’s work has never been so important. Many of our team are working as part of the UK frontline response, including pioneering research, and many more around the world are working tirelessly to minimise the devastating impact of the pandemic on the most fragile health systems.
Join us in our fight against this deadly disease and support LSTM’s COVID-19 Response and Resilience Fund, creating vital funds to support Malawi’s health system and enabling more cutting-edge research to fight the pandemic and to build resilience for the future.