Health and Advocacy: What Are the Barriers to the Use of Evidence in Policy?

Abstract

the aim of this book: to draw insights from policy theory, to make a useful contribution to the study of ‘evidence-based policymaking’ (EBPM); and, to challenge scientific advocates to recognise these insights when engaging in the policy process. Applications to health and environmental policy I apply these insights to two policy areas in which there is an unusually strong link between the production of scientific evidence and advocacy for policy change: health and environment. In both cases, the suppliers of scientific evidence, about the pressing nature of a policy problem, often become frustrated when policymakers do not respond in a timely and proportionate way. Consequently, an important new literature has developed, in which scientists attempt to identify the barriers to turning evidence into policy. In many cases the analysis is naïve and underpinned by minimal policy theory. I use an extensive synthesis of the policy literature to provide a more realistic and, therefore, practical guide to policy advocates. Consequently, the book has these broad advantages. It: 1. Informs scientific debates on the nature, and limitations, of EBPM. 2. Provides scientists, and other actors without a background in the policy sciences, a way to understand complex government. 3. Provides a comparison between, and ability to draw lessons from, policy areas in which there are important overlaps between science and advocacy. 4. Provides a comparison of EBPM processes in different governing contexts, from the global to the national and local. 5. Helps scientists and other actors understand how they can adapt to complex government to become more effective when they present evidence.