The Wellcome Trust (WT) in collaboration with the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW) and the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) conducted a Policy Engagement Meeting at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe from 25 February to 27 February 2019.

This was a follow up meeting to the inaugural policy engagement gathering that took place in London in June 2018. The meeting aimed at building capacity and skills on policy engagement amongst patrons from different institutions including government and international partners of MLW.

The meeting had representatives from the Ministry of Health (MoH), MLW, College of Medicine, AFIDEP, WT, International Network of Government Science Advice (INGSA), Evidence Informed Decision-making Network for Health Policy Practice in Malawi (EVIDENT), OUCRU, AHRI, India Alliance, KWTRP and Health Economics and Policy unit (HEPU).

One of the notable sessions during the meeting was a panel discussion themed “Bringing Public Voices into Policy Engagement” which had representation of Dr. Deborah Nyirenda and Rodrick Sambakunsi from MLW. The session aimed at bringing the expertise and experiences of public engagement practitioners to find common ground for policy engagement discourse.