The Department of Agriculture-National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (DA-NFRDI), through its Training Division (TD), capacitated researchers, faculty, and partner agencies of the Caraga State University (CSU) on policy brief development and disseminating research to the community.

Dr. Mudjekeewis Santos, Scientist IV and TD chief; and Cyrenes Moncawe, managing editor of The Philippine Journal of Fisheries (TPJF) and TD training specialist, served as resource persons for the training-workshop held on January 10-13, 2022 at the HERO Auditorium, Caraga State University, Butuan City.

“[as researchers] We are good with numbers but sometimes we fall short on how we communicate it to our stakeholders, in [such] a way that even an ordinary Juan dela Cruz can fully understand,” said Dr. Rolyn Daguil, CSU president, during the opening ceremony.

In partnership with the RD Leadership Program of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Caraga, the hybrid (on-site and online) training-workshop aimed to provide participants with expert knowledge and skills on publishing policy briefs and presenting it to key stakeholders.

“…our job is to make sure that all your research outputs will be diffused, commercialized, and disseminated,” concurred Engr. Noel Ajoc, Regional Director, DOST Caraga.

The training-workshop covered topics on policy development process; case studies on turning science to policy; publishing policy briefs; writing tips to communicate evidence-based policy.

Rita dela Cruz, TD’s education chief, lectured on turning policy briefs into publication materials specifically infographics. As part of practical exercises, participants drafted their policy briefs following the template of TPJF and presented them in a newsletter format.

Participants were also taught how to create presentation slides, best practices in presenting policy briefs to the community, and engaging stakeholders. Trainees transformed their policy brief pubmat into presentation slides as part of a mock presentation to the plenary.

The presentation was used during the on-site visit to the municipality of Jabonga to present a specific policy brief with officials from the local government unit (LGU) as part of the audience. The exercise serves as an exercise for future and actual policy presentations to LGUs.

“I learned a lot from the lectures. I am also a ‘low-tech’ when it comes to doing presentation slides. But with the lectures of our resource speakers, it helped me a lot,” said Lorina Galvez, one of the participants from the Visayas State University. ### (Cyrenes Moncawe)