research evidence

What joining the European Social Survey means for social science research and evidence-informed policy making in Serbia. In conversation with Professor Dragan Stanojević.

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The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade has a long history. It was established in 1838 and today it is located in a modern building in downtown Belgrade. I went there to meet Dragan Stanojević, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology. I wanted to meet him because he led the initiative that resulted […]

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A conversation about policy experiments

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The search for ways to design policies that help to solve societal problems is continuously evolving. The traditional evidence-based approach to policy making involves generating research results and using these to inform policy decisions. This blog post is based on an interview with Mikko Annala, Head of Governance Innovation at Demos Helsinki. It was originally posted on

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Flag of Finland. Photo: Sepi V (CC BY 2.0)

Making research evidence count: insights from Finland’s Policy Analysis Unit

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After more than a decade in Asia working to build governments’ use of evidence, I recently moved back to Finland. Here I’ve found commitment to evidence and innovation like nowhere else. Kokeileva Suomi or Experimental Finland is a great example of the nation’s ‘readiness to innovate’. Set up by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä in 2015, it tests policies

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Policy content change is one of the types of policy change, but not the only one

2 Comments / political economy /

There is an interesting exchange mid-way through David Letterman’s interview to President Barack Obama on Netflix.  Letterman asks President Obama about his reflection on policymaking and the role and power that the president actually has.  Obama answer is quite illuminating in terms of the nature of policy change. Yes, he says, a lot of his time

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The struggle of bringing research into climate change policy

Leave a Comment / adaptive development, climate change /

I read a vey interesting article in the Guardian Weekly about the struggle of science research in the United States following the election of Donald Trump as president (The climate change battle dividing trump’s America). Funding for climate change research is being cut. A climate change sceptic has been appointed as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.  A

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Learning about learning in an adaptive programme

2 Comments / political economy /

I am re-posting here the blog published last week by Better Evaluation where Fred Carden and I discuss about learning in an adaptive programme. Better Evaluation has started a conversation to answer questions such as: How relevant are these ideas for our work? How different is learning in an adaptive programme compared to what we already do? What are some challenges in

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