The World Health Organization’s Evidence-informed Policy Network (‎EVIPNet)‎ has supported Member States in designing, implementing and institutionalizing efforts to support evidence-informed policy-making (‎EIP)‎. This experience has shown the importance of systematically and comprehensively identifying important contextual factors that can either support or hinder countries in identifying the organizational and operational niche of the future EVIPNet knowledge translation platform (‎KTP)‎ at the country level.

The Situation Analysis Manual guides the analysis of such contextual factors. The purpose of this Manual is twofold: 1)‎ to assist WHO Member States in planning and conducting a situation analysis (‎SA)‎ to understand the local context with regard to EIP/KTP. An SA aims to gather background information that supports a systematic and comprehensive reflection on the most important local factors that will either support or act as barriers to the establishment and operationalization of future KTPs. KTPs are the fundamental units of EVIPNet at the country level; 2)‎ to provide general principles, approaches and tools that can be applied to conduct and present the findings from an SA. While several tools and approaches are meant to assist users in tackling the SA, the Manual is not a rigid protocol. The data collection methods should be, as required, adapted to the local context. For instance, questions can be amended to ensure that these are culturally and/or politically sensitive.