Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have lower levels of production and use of evidence syntheses to inform practice and policy decisions, compared to high-income countries. A major reason for this difference is the limited capacity to undertake evidence syntheses and support their use in LMICs. The Global Evidence Synthesis Initiative (GESI) was launched to enhance such capacity.

GESI was founded by a number of global or internationally oriented research organiSations committed to the production and use of evidence syntheses to enhance professional practice and public policy. The founding organisations include the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, the Campbell Collaboration, Cochrane, the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE), the EPPI-Centre, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), and the Joanna Briggs Institute.

The secretariat supporting and manage GESI functions is hosted by the Center for Systematic Reviews on Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK) the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon. The secretariat reports to a GESI governance group that represents GESI’s founding organisations. An advisory group will also be established to act as an additional source of support and advice for the secretariat and the governance group.

GESI is establishing a Network of centres of evidence synthesis in LMICs.
At the Summit, we will describe GESI’s efforts to form the Network, hold capacity building activities such as workshops and webinars, raise funds and use them to support ten GESI Evidence Synthesis Centres, to be selected out of the GESI Network.