Making Policy Evidence Effective: 6 Proven Strategies

This article is a part of a series on how public policy works. At the bottom, you will find links to other articles in this series. In this piece, I share my personal experiences on how researchers can increase their chances of generating evidence influencing public policy. As usual, this list should not be considered exhaustive and can be enhanced through the experiences of others in similar contexts.

Evidence is helpful in making policy discussions more objective and increasing the effectiveness of selected policy decisions. Generally, social progress and strides made in policy solutions over time reflect advances in knowledge through research.

Granted, certain researchers effortlessly influence policy, mainly by being part of the formal policy bureaucracies in certain countries or simply knowing how to sell their evidence better than most. The majority, however, toil hard in research institutions with the hope that, somehow, their surprising new discovery may sneak from the editorial pages of journal publications to persuade an influential policymaker to do things differently.

Most research programs have ‘policy influence’ as a key performance metric. This is tough. In the desperation to achieve this metric, simple mentions of certain studies in the media are counted as a sign of influence—in the hope that someone involved in policymaking may just want to explore further and ‘become influenced’ along the way. While not discounting this, I blame the research and development funding machinery of the 20th century, which is willing to hang on to anything that remotely suggests success.

Evidence is an important but not a mutually exclusive prerequisite for policy change.

It must fight for pride of place against sectarian interests, ideological bias, and political goals.

Unfortunately, the gap between the kind of evidence policy maker’s need and what researchers are willing or able to generate has long been wide, with little indication of converging. How can policy-oriented researchers ensure that their products shift policy perspectives in the real world toward greater effectiveness? The following six strategies reflect my experience working in research, as a government policy advisor, and as a policy director charged with influencing government policy.

i) Invest in understanding the policy context

Most research programs are designed to fill knowledge gaps, and this is good. Nevertheless, for a research program to influence policy, that goal must be central to the research design from the beginning.

Effective policy design must be clear about the following: 1) what is the size and significance of the policy problem?; 2) how is the problem being addressed currently?; 3) who is interested in seeing that problem resolved, and what power do they hold?; 4) who benefits from the existence of that problem?; 5) how big is that problem when considered alongside other issues in the domain or sector? and; 6) does changing the policy issue require new research or re-packaging existing evidence?

If for no other reason, this knowledge will estimate the size of and prepare you for the influencing task ahead.

If a research program is unclear about this from the beginning, it should modify the policy influence objective accordingly.

ii) Package the evidence in support of political goals

Politicians atop the policy food chain are primarily interested in certain political goals.

They either want to improve or be seen to be improving the lives of their constituents, remain politically relevant, secure their legacy, or make money.

Evidence that is likely to be successful must demonstrate a clear link between the proposed policy action and its ability to enable political actors to achieve their own goals. When this point is unclear, policy proposals tend to gather dust in policy corridors no matter how path-breaking they are.

iii) Make the language accessible  

Most policymakers are generalists appointed to advance goals that mostly straddle sectorial boundaries. They are busy people with brief windows of opportunity to be influenced.

The language in policy briefs and other communications directed at them must be brief, succinct, and to the point.

Ditch acronyms and words that impress at academic conferences and resist the urge to demonstrate your knowledge of different theoretical constructs.

Make good use of infographics, images, and graphs. If you must use language or communication experts to do this, please do so, it’s a good investment.

iv) Provide answers to common sense questions 

Evidence is a set of arguments for certain policy alternatives. Avoid incomplete arguments by ensuring that policy proposals are not overtly attempting to disseminate research results from a specific research project. Literature review should be conducted to broaden the comprehensiveness of the proposed policy proposal presented.

You might be surprised that research information common within the research domain may indeed be breaking news within policy circles.

v) Create bridges with policymakers

Historically, there has been an awkward interface between generators and users of evidence. This gap needs to be closed by creating regular contact between policymakers and academics through participation in formal and informal spaces for engagement. Academic programs at the research level might benefit from the study of human psychology and political science to improve this chemistry.

vi) Leverage on Research-Industry partnerships

If research results are respected, evidence of what has worked is revered in the eyes of policymakers. Politicians are in a hurry to succeed, and one sure way of arresting their attention is by demonstrating how your research results have been corroborated in real-life situations.

Research-Industry partnerships create legitimacy for research results and improve the chances of policy influence. 

When it becomes clear that evidence (no matter how persuasive it is) is not working, a decision needs to be made whether to abandon the influence cause or explore other avenues to advocate for change. I covered this in a different article here for those who decide to fight it out.