Evidence for Policymakers 2021

Evidence for Policymakers, The Hague, The Netherlands

UPDATE: The conference will be held completely virtual, the optional conference dinner on december 1 will be physical at "Het plein" in The Hague

Background
After its first edition last December (which was inspired by the Hague Recommendations and was visited by 330 attendees from 22 countries), the Evidence for Policymakers conference invites policymakers, evaluators, academia, research managers, science advisers and knowledge brokers to continue the discussion on issues that influence our capacity to enhance the development and practical use of evidence for policymakers. The conference is organized back to back with the seminar 'Better Algorithms for Better Policy', where on November 30 we will explore how governmental institutions can better organize data driven policymaking including the use of Artificial Intelligence for the public good.

The momentum for evidence informed policymaking remains high around the globe; the COVID-19 pandemic has generated clear-cut illustrations of the importance of reliable and accessible data of multidisciplinary research to improve the robustness of policymaking. More and less related to those manifestations, actors from both the academic field and governmental bodies have started ambitious initiatives to structure and intensify the interaction between research and policy. In The Netherlands, to name one example, the interdepartmental operation ‘Insight into Quality’ has led to the adoption of Strategic Evaluation Agenda’s (an agenda for evaluating policy-effectiveness and -efficiency during the whole policy cycle) for all ministries. 

On 1 and 2 December, the recently launched global network of STEPPS (Strengthening and Transferring Evidence for Policy and Politics Society) assembles and share inspiring initiatives on regional, local and international level. On the first day, we aim to position the (potential) role of research for policymakers. Overall, topics that we will address include:

Building Evidence for Effective Policy Interventions

• The role of academia and public research to develop evidence for more effective policies
• What are the requirements for responsible yet targeted use of algorithms, Artificial Intelligence and big data?
• How can we set up RCT’s and experimental policies to assess the effectiveness of policies?
• How can we substantiate evidence informed politics?

Mobilizing evidence from research to policymaking

• Making evidence better accessible on a regional, national and international level
• What role may evidence-databases play?
• Developing user-friendly research ecosystems within governments.

 On the second day, we will explore how governmental institutions can be best organize to stimulate the uptake and application of relevance research, and become a learning government. Topics we will address include:

• The role of evaluation; positioning ex-ante, -durante and -post evaluation, and the use of Big Data in these methods
• Strategic Evaluation Agenda’s; what are they, how do we substantiate them and how do we address strategic hurdles?
• How to set and meet evidence based policy targets through the Deliverology methodology
• (Re)defining, assessing and delivering the public value of governments
• Involving citizens in stimulating evidence informed policymaking.

We are looking forward to virtually welcome you to The Hague for 2 inspiring and impactful days!