The SPARC funded pre-conference workshops and international conference were organized by Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal and Public Health Evidence South Asia, Prasanna School of Public Health, MAHE, Manipal in association with Social Science Research Unit, UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, UK from 15^th March 2022 to 17^th March 2022.

The international conference was organized to provide opportunities for the delegates to exchange knowledge and share their experience about indigenizing/contextualizing evidence to local context for informing policy and practice decisions in South Asia. The conference also provided a platform for participants to disseminate their research work. ​Also, the pre-conference workshops provided extensive information on qualitative and mixed-method systematic reviews.

Preconference Workshops on Qualitative Systematic Review & Mixed Methods Review

The parallel sessions on Qualitative Systematic Review & Mixed Methods Review were scheduled from 2:00 - 5:00 pm IST/8:30 - 11:30 am GMT on 15th March 2022 through the Zoom online platform.

Preconference Workshop on Qualitative Systematic Review began with the session by Dr Bhumika TV, Director General, Campbell South Asia (CSA), India, who deliberated on the topic ‘Introduction to Qualitative Systematic Review, Scope and Methods’. The next session was on ‘Qualitative systematic review: Challenges and policy implications’ was dealt by Dr Kelly Dickson, Associate Professor, IOE - Social Research Institute UCL Institute of Education, London, UK. The sessions were followed by group work and discussions. The discussions were led by Mrs Anupama D. S, PhD scholar, MCON, MAHE, Manipal. Mrs Henita, PhD scholar, MCON, MAHE was the master of the ceremony. There were a total of 22 participants who participated in the workshop.

Preconference Workshop on Mixed Methods Review started with the session on ‘Introduction to Mixed methods Systematic Reviews’ by Dr Mukdarut Bangpan, Associate Professor, Departmental Graduate Tutor Module leader: International Development EPPI-Centre, UCL Social Research Institute, and then Dr Preethy D’Souza Senior Research Fellow IOE - Social Research Institute UCL Institute of Education, London, UK dealt on the session ‘Methodology and Challenges of Mixed-methods systematic review’. The sessions were followed by group work and discussion which was led by Mr Siva, PhD scholar, MCON, MAHE, Manipal. Mrs Sunitha Solomon, PhD scholar, MCON, MAHE was the master of the ceremony. There were a total of 37 participants who participated in the workshop.

The overall feedback from the participants was good. Participants were involved actively in the group activities. E-certificates were emailed to the participants.

International conference on indigenizing systematic review evidence to local context for informing policy and practice decisions

SPARC funded International conference (virtual) on ‘Indigenizing systematic review evidence to local context for informing policy and practice decisions’ was organised by MCON, MAHE, Manipal and PHESA, PSPH, MAHE, Manipal in association with Social Science Research Unit, UCL Social Research Institute, UCL, UK was held on 16^th and 17^th March 2022 at 2:00 - 6:00 pm IST/8:30 - 12.30 pm GMT. On 16^th March, at 2.00 pm the conference began with the formal inauguration. Dr Judith A Noronha, Dean, MCON, MAHE welcomed everyone, detailed introduction to the SPARC project was given by Dr Baby S Nayak, Prof. & Head, Dept of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE, Manipal. Dr H. Vinod Bhat, Executive Vice President, MAHE, Manipal was the chief guest. In the chief guest address, Dr H. Vinod Bhat explained the difficulties in obtaining a SPARC grant for MAHE being a private university.  He also discussed the importance of a strong evidence base for any health policies. A vote of thanks was delivered by Dr Binil, Associate Professor, Dept. of MHN, MCON, MAHE, Manipal, who was the convenor of the conference.

The first plenary session was on ‘Synthesizing evidence using systematic reviews’ was by Dr N Sreekumaran Nair Professor & Head Dept. of Medical Biometrics, Informatics & Biostatistics, JIPMER, Pondicherry, and the session was moderated by Dr Sanjay M Pattanshetty, Associate Professor, Dept. of Health Policy, PSPH, MAHE, Manipal. Synthesizing systematic review evidence -work done on the topic ‘effective interventions for contraceptive use’ was dealt by Dr Sonia R.B D’Souza, Professor & Head, Dept. of OBG Nursing and Ms Tenzin Phagdol, PhD scholar MCON, MAHE, Manipal.

The next plenary session was on ‘Searching resources for local context’ was dealt by Dr Claire Stansfield, Senior Research Fellow IOE – SRI, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK. The session was moderated by Dr Judith A Noronha, Dean, MCON, MAHE, Manipal.

Searching Indian resources for evidence on contraception was elaborated by Dr Shradha S. Parsekar and Dr Eti Rajwar, Former Research Officers, PHESA, PSPH, MAHE, Manipal. Indigenizing evidence for local context was dealt by Prof. Sandy Oliver, Professor of Public Policy IOE- Social Research Institute UCL Institute of Education London, UK was moderated by Dr Anice George, Professor, Dept. of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE, Manipal

The session on the worked example of ‘Indigenizing/ contextualizing the findings of global systematic review evidence on contraception to Indian context’ was delivered by Dr Preethy D’Souza, Senior Research Fellow IOE - Social Research Institute UCL IOE, London, The UK and Dr Baby S Nayak Professor & Head Dept. of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE, Manipal.

The second day of SPARC funded international conference on 17^th March 2022 began with the panel discussion on ‘Importance of indigenizing evidence to local context for informing policy and practice decisions in South Asia’ (Case studies/Examples of indigenizing evidence from South Asian Countries). Speakers from South Asia, Dr Meenu Singh (India) Professor of Paediatrics, Chief Paediatric Pulmonology, Advanced Paediatrics Centre PI: ICMR Advanced Center for research in Evidence-based Child Health Head, Dept. of Telemedicine Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India Dr Rolina Dhital (Nepal) Founder and Chair Health Action and Research Nepal Dr Anuji U Gamage (Sri Lanka) Senior Lecturer/ Consultant Community Physician Paraclinical Department, Faculty of Medicine General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University Sri Lanka and  Prof. Muzaherul Huq (Bangladesh) Founding chairman, Public Health Foundation, Bangladesh Former Regional Advisor, WHO, SEARO were the panelists. The panel discussion was moderated by Prof. Helmut Brand, Director Prasanna School of Public Health, MAHE, Manipal.

Presentation on the sub-theme:  ‘Impediments & opportunities for using evidence in India’ was led by Dr Prachi Pundir (Former Research Officer, PHESA, PSPH, MAHE, Manipal) Consultant The George Institute for Global Health New Delhi and Dr Binil V, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mental Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE, Manipal.

Dr Eti Rajwar (Former Research Officer, PHESA, PSPH, MAHE, Manipal) Consultant The George Institute for Global Health New Delhi spoke on ‘Evolution of evidence policy-system in India and its reflection in India’s public health guideline documents’.

Oral/ poster presentations were held for the selected abstracts. There were 23 abstracts for presentation out of which 11 were for oral presentations and 12 poster presentations. This presentation was conducted as parallel sessions in two rooms and was led by Mrs Anupama D S and Ms Tenzin Phagdol. Dr Ramesh Holla, Associate professor, Department of Community Medicine, KMC, Mangalore. Dr Reshmi Nair, Professor and Associate Dean, Manipal College of Health professions, MAHE, Manipal, Dr Prasanna Mitra, Additional Professor, Department of Community Medicine, KMC Mangalore, and Dr Ranjitha Shetty, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine at KMC Manipal were the chairpersons for the scientific presentations. Closing remarks and a vote of thanks were delivered by Ms Tenzin Phagdol, PhD scholar MCON, MAHE, Manipal.

A total of 144 participants attended the conference. The participants were from different disciplines such as nursing, public health, physiotherapy, pharmacy etc. The participants were actively involved during the session and overall feedback of the conference was good.