The evidence-to-policy conundrum and how to solve it

Does better evidence lead to better policies and programs? Massive amounts of reliable evidence, drawing on scientifically strong methods, including randomized controlled trials, mixed-methods approaches, and more, have been generated and disseminated in recent decades. A Nobel Prize has been awarded for that pathbreaking work. Yet the impact of that evidence – on what policymakers and program implementers think and do – has been far below expectations, even pitifully tiny according to some accounts. billion people.

Insights from the Development Evidence Portal – the Middle East and North Africa

Our latest piece in the ‘state of the evidence’ series – which interprets data by unpacking the studies in our Development Evidence Portal (DEP) – focuses on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. . The DEP currently includes 740 impact evaluations (IE) and 352 systematic reviews (SR) from the region, which is the second smallest amongst regions containing low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs). Interested readers are encouraged to further explore the DEP for additional data not covered in this blog.

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Latest blogs

Civil society: strong advocates for evidence-informed HIV/AIDS policies and action

Nancy Diaz 30 January 2014 blog

As a member of 3ie’s HIV/AIDS programme team, I attended the annual International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), where I was struck by the strong and vital presence of countless civil society organisations (CSOs). From the displays in the main lobby calling for sex workers’ rights to the exhibits displayed by legal networks, human rights advocates and community organizations throughout the Cape Town International Convention Centre, I was reminded that participation of CSOs is crucial to moving forward the dialogue and action on improved HIV prevention and access to HIV/AIDS treatment, especially in hard-hit developing countries.

Making participation count

Radhika Menon 09 January 2014 blog

Toilets get converted into temples, and schools are used as cattle sheds. These are stories that are part of development lore. They illustrate the poor participation of ‘beneficiaries’ in well-intentioned development programmes. So, it is rather disturbing that millions of dollars are spent on development programmes with low participation, when we have evidence that participation matters for impact.

M&E: A tale of two brothers

17 December 2013 blog

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) are always mentioned together but in practice these two disciplines pretty much evade each other. This is despite the fact that they could be highly beneficial to each other, and if carefully combined, also to the intervention.

Does development need a nudge, or a big push?

Howard White 11 December 2013 blog

Sending people persuasive reminder letters to pay their taxes recovered ₤210 million of revenue for the UK government. Getting the long term unemployed to write about their experiences, increased their chances of getting a job. Placing healthy choices of food –like fruit instead of chocolate- in obvious locations improves children’s eating habits.

Evidence Matters and so does blogging

Howard White 05 December 2013 blog

3ie is not just a grant-making institution. As a knowledge broker, we promote theory-based, and policy-relevant impact evaluations and systematic reviews. Blogs are an increasingly important way that 3ie can be communicating its messages more widely. Our methods blogs have covered the importance of mixed methods and participatory approaches, various perspectives on causal chain analysis (see here and here), and how to promote randomised control trials effectively.

The HIV/AIDS treatment cascade

Anna Heard, Annette Brown 01 December 2013 blog

One of the reasons we appreciate international days is that they prompt us to pause and reflect on what we’ve been doing in the past year, as well as think about what the next year will bring. On this International AIDS Day, our first reflection is realising how much we have grown our HIV/AIDS programming in 3ie in 2013.

A pitch for better use of mixed methods in impact evaluations

Shagun Sabarwal 27 November 2013 blog

At the opening session of 3ie’s recent Measuring Results conference, Jyotsna Puri, Deputy Executive Director and Head of Evaluation at 3ie, said, “It takes a village to do an impact evaluation.” What she meant was that, for an impact evaluation to be successful and policy relevant, research teams need to be diverse and include a mix of disciplines, such as statisticians, anthropologists, economists, surveyors, enumerators and policy experts, as well as use the most appropriate mix of evaluation and research methods.

Shining a light on the unknown knowns

Drew Cameron, Annette Brown 18 September 2013 blog

Donald Rumsfeld, a former US Secretary of Defense, famously noted the distinction between known knowns(things we know we know), known unknowns (things we know we don’t know), and unknown unknowns (things we don’t know we don’t know). In international development research, these same distinctions exist.

How will they ever learn?

Howard White 10 September 2013 blog

The low-quality of education in much of the developing world is no secret. The Annual status of education report (Aser), produced by the Indian NGO Pratham, has been documenting the poor state of affairs in that country for several years. The most recent report highlights the fact that more than half of grade five students can read only at grade two level. Similar statistics are available from around the world.

Can we learn more from clinical trials than simply methods?

Eric Djimeu 16 August 2013 blog

What if scientists directly tested their drug ideas on humans without first demonstrating their potential efficacy in labs? This question sounds hypothetical because we all know that using untested drugs can be potentially dangerous. If we were then to use the same logic, should we not be exercising similar caution with randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of social and economic development interventions involving human subjects?

About

Evidence Matters is 3ie’s blog. It primarily features contributions from staff and board members. Guest blogs are by invitation.

3ie publishes blogs in the form received from the authors. Any errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors. Views expressed are their own and do not represent the opinions of 3ie, its board of commissioners or supporters.