The Art and Science of Promoting Evidence-Informed Decision-Making: A Global Living Evidence Map

Technical Report

(access the report here)

Countries across the globe have made significant strides in reducing poverty and inequality over the last 30 years, despite scarce public resources for policymakers. Several challenges, however, remain as governments design a range of policies and programmes to support socio-economic development and transformation. However, despite existing activities and established institutions, there is no overall knowledge base on the learning and evaluation of the evidence-informed policymaking (EIPM) efforts globally. In short, we don’t know the size and nature of the existing evidence on what works for EIPM globally. 

This evidence map set out to collect and organise the knowledge base on EIPM. The evidence map includes both scientific and grey literature assessing EIPM efforts. As a hub of all the available evidence on EIPM, it presents an opportunity for cross-learning and dialogue between EIPM advocates. It also serves as an anchor and overview of what EIPM strategies have been tested and to what effect on the continent. 

The evidence map was produced following a rigorous process, based on systematic review methodology, to search for, screen, and extract relevant evidence evaluating the effects of evidence-use interventions. 

In total, the map includes 783 studies following an exhaustive search of both the academic and grey literature, which yielded 120,161 citations. To be included in the evidence map, studies had to meet transparent inclusion criteria, which can be summarised as requiring eligible evidence to:

• Have been conducted in any part of the world
• Applied some form of deliberate action or strategy to intervene in the status quo of evidence-use (i.e. applying an evidence-use intervention)
• Have measured either final or intermediate outcomes of evidence-use 
• And have collected and analysed empirical data on the effects of such evidence-use interventions. 

We applied a deliberately broad scope to ensure we do not exclude any relevant evidence.

The map is structured according to an intervention and outcome framework. On the left axis, evidence-use interventions are structured according to the underlying mechanisms of change applied in the interventions; on the top axis, the intermediate to final outcomes of evidence-use are presented. The size of the bubble within this intervention-to-outcome framework indicates the size of the available evidence base: the larger the bubble, the larger the evidence base. The yellow and orange colouring of each bubble indicates whether the available evidence presents knowledge either produced through a process of documenting a scientific inquiry (science of using evidence) or documenting tacit knowledge (art of using evidence). 

How to interpret this map: an outline of the key concepts of the interactive evidence map is provided here https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/evidence-to-policy-and-impact/how-to-interpret-this-map---art-and-science-pace-v3.pdf?sfvrsn=23de015f_1

How to use this map: A video on how to use this map is provided here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1unuT8V9S14MpHc2LSCR4OGFaF8BflThW?usp=sharing    

To cite this map: The art and science of promoting evidence-informed policymaking: a global living evidence map. Johannesburg: Pan-African Collective for Evidence (PACE); 2025

For more information on this evidence map, please contact Zafeer Ravat at zafeerr@pace-evidence.org