Supporting Routine Use of Evidence During Policy-Making

15 items · Travel · Medium difficulty · 30 min

Make evidence use a routine part of policy-making with clear, actionable steps.

• Define which policy decisions require evidence

  List decision types and triggers that must use evidence.

• Identify specific evidence needs for each decision

  Specify data types, timeframes, and quality requirements.

• Map stakeholders, experts, and data owners to consult

  Include internal staff, external researchers, and community reps.

• Establish clear standards for acceptable evidence

  Define acceptable study types, recency, and relevance criteria.

• Create a central, searchable evidence repository

  Use tags and metadata so evidence is easy to find.

• Set data access, sharing and privacy procedures

  Clarify permissions, embargoes, and confidentiality rules.

• Schedule regular evidence briefings for policy teams

  Plan short updates timed before decision meetings.

• Require a concise evidence summary with each proposal

  Include key findings, quality, and uncertainties.

• Train staff in basic evidence appraisal

  Cover bias, applicability, and interpreting results.

• Provide appraisal tools and summary templates

  Share checklists and one-page brief templates for use.

• Organize short hands-on workshops for officials

  Use case studies to practice applying evidence.

• Allocate dedicated time and budget for evidence tasks

  Plan staff hours, training funds, and tool subscriptions.

• Monitor and log how evidence influenced decisions

  Keep a simple record linking evidence to outcomes.

• Evaluate evidence-use practices and update processes

  Review annually and implement improvements.

• Communicate decisions and the supporting evidence publicly

  Publish summaries so stakeholders understand the rationale.

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