Evidence Mapping and Synthesis

PAN is working with the Departments of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to identify and synthesise evidence related to health systems and local government respectively.

Approach

Supporting evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) requires both proactive development and maintenance of evidence bases from which relevant research can be sourced and synthesised, as well as reactive identification of research to respond to an emerging policy need. In both cases, the research is often needed quickly but the process of sourcing, appraising and synthesising literature needs to be sufficiently rigorous to ensure that policy actors can trust the findings. As PAN, we are applying specific systematic review methodologies for gathering evidence, as well as broader concepts relevant to EIDM support. For example see Stewart et al. 2018 and DPME's guidance on Policy Relevant Evidence Maps.

Our initial work with DPME ran until March 2021 to develop a health systems evidence base and evidence map. A new phase of collaboration aims to use the evidence base to provide targeted evidence support on specific policy questions. Our project with CoGTA on public participation completed in 2020.

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