Table 3 Statements about strengthened capacities for evidence-informed policy-making from attending dialogues

 Mutual understanding

“I hope that we did bring enough of the policy wonk types, and the academics, and the health people together to walk away … and then after some connections with someone else, they get to a place they weren’t before. So that’s my opinion about any kind of policy workshop. It just gets people in a room and builds trust and cohesion, and it gets people focused on common issues.” [R7]

 New ways of thinking

“The exchange allows here just an exchange of ideas. So hopefully put other than your own thoughts and our own views, based on where we worked or how we see things functioning. I would hope that it’s kind of broadened everyone’s mind about different ways to do things.” [NSO2]

 Relationships

“I suspect that the communities have been strengthened, just by opening more effective lines of communication” [NSO2]

 Empowerment

“We get the confidence about maybe the path we’re taking, or we change the path we’re taking based on what we learned. So in that sense, they’re useful.” [PPM3]

 Agenda setting

“… I probably would have mentioned something at some point where again, all of [province] is kind of implementing this stuff too right now … It might have been this sort of thing that these things rub off on other people there, help them advance their own agendas.” [PPM2]

 Policy formulation

“But I think forums like this help us learn from each other find out what’s worked what isn’t working and not necessarily take something holis bolis from [one jurisdiction to the next] because they are different in structure and… or they might have some successes in [jurisdiction] to learn from and I think that is probably the best way to go forward.” [PPM3]

 Preparation for policy windows

“As long as those windows are open, policy dialogues like this do play a role, because we get ideas from each other.” [PPM3]