Knowledge utilisation and the process of policy formation: towards a framework for Africa

Reviews the published literature on the role of technical information in the making of public policy, examines more general models of the policy process, and outlines a framework for rethinking the relationship between policy research and advocacy.

Concludes that:

• there is little empirical support for a model of knowledge utilization that sees policy decisions as discrete events, undertaken by isolated actors who make an authoritative decision based on a comprehensive analysis of policy options. Policy learning, according to this conception, occurs when decision makers are supplied with new, policy relevant nformation; but the available evidence suggests that this kind of learning rarely fits actual cases of policy formation or change.
• Policymaking and policy learning occur within a web of interacting forces, involving multiple sources of information, complex power relations, and changing institutional arrangements.
• The knowledge utilization and policy formation literature broadly supports the argument that policy learning is best characterized as an ongoing, incremental process. Certainly this process is punctuated by discrete instances of decision making and policy change. But policy learning is not reducible to specific policy decisions; instead, it tends to be much more continuous and open-ended
• members of the policy research and analysis communities who want their information to influence policy had better be committed to the long haul.

[author]