Routledge Using Evidence in Policy and Practice: Lessons from Africa (Rethinking Development)

This book asks how governments in Africa can use evidence to improve their policies and programmes, and ultimately, to achieve positive change for their citizens. Looking at different evidence sources across a range of contexts, the book brings policy makers and researchers together to uncover what does and doesn’t work and why. Case studies are drawn from five countries and the ECOWAS (west African) region, and a range of sectors from education, wildlife, sanitation, through to government procurement processes. The book is supported by a range of policy briefs and videos intended to be both practical and critically rigorous. It uses evidence sources such as evaluations, research synthesis and citizen engagement to show how these cases succeeded in informing policy and practice. The voices of policy makers are key to the book, ensuring that the examples deployed are useful to practitioners and researchers alike. This innovative book will be perfect for policy makers, practitioners in government and civil society, and researchers and academics with an interest in how evidence can be used to support policy making in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003007043, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license Review "The participation of my ministry in the research and writing of this book has been a great opportunity to mobilise the key stakeholders in the agriculture sector around the importance of evaluation and the incomparable benefits of developing public policy based on evidence." -- Bonaventure Kouakanou, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Benin "I highly recommend this book. It is a cogent analysis of why all policy-makers ought to use evidence and citizen engagement, routinely, to improve decision-making." -- Judi Wakhungu, EGH, Kenya Ambassador to France, Portugal, Serbia & Holy Sea; previously Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources "Profiling the work of policy-makers to use evidence in their decision-making is so important, and the world has much to learn from our experiences in Africa. This book makes a valuable contribution for all of us working to support better decisions based on better evidence." -- Ruth Stewart, Africa Centre for Evidence, University of Johannesburg, South Africa; Chair, Africa Evidence Network "In an era of Africa awakening, there is no time to waste on traditions, fads, success stories, and intuitions. The time has come for African policy-makers and development professionals to move to evidence-based decision making and actions. This book showcases the rich use of evidence from selected African countries that can serve as a guide for those interested to learn what others have done in an African context." -- David Sarfo Ameyaw, CEO/President, The International Centre for Evaluation and Development, Kenya "This is an extremely timely book that contributes to both the theory and practice of evidence-informed public policy-making. By drawing on grounded examples from a range of contexts and issues, these African case studies reveal not only that evidence matters, but that it can, and does, have a real impact on positive societal change." -- Peter Taylor, formerly International Development Research Centre, now Institute for Development Studies, UK "Using Evidence in Policy and Practice is an important and timely issue for Africa, if the continent is to develop to be the Africa we want. The capacity to understand "what works and what does not and why" is critical for any government or development partner that aspires to deliver results to citizens. I recommend this book to all persons that have the mission to enhance service delivery through better policy implementation." -- Lawal Zakariya’u, Director National Monitoring & Evaluation, Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning, Nigeria "The book presents a timely value propositi