Strengthening international evidence-informed policy making: lessons from the Global South

Introduction

Evidence-informed policy making (EIP) has generated substantial scholarship, but its contribution to the practicalities of policy making in international organisations is limited by the focus on a discreet and generally local level of governance. Furthermore, there is an acute bias in existing EIP literature, with the majority of studies derived from Global North countries.

Methods

To partially redress this geographic imbalance, the study produces four national case studies drawn from Sub-Saharan Africa, each reflecting on current, live policy processes within those national contexts, which are comparatively summarised within this article.

Analytic plan

Case studies are examined through an analytical framework based on Langer et al (2020) to identify replicable practices that may inform decision-making across multiple scales of governance, operating under the assumption that policy processes are transboundary and that lessons from national contexts can be translated to the international level.

Results

Findings emphasise integrating diverse stakeholders through inclusive approaches that enable meaningful participation of underrepresented knowledge. The centrality of political economy in shaping evidence use is highlighted, the need for structured evidence-demand and communication practices, and the value of clear guidelines around evidence categories to strengthen how diverse evidence types are interpreted across governance levels.

Conclusion

This article extends EIP’s analytical reach beyond local and Global North contexts, offering a framework applicable to international policy-making institutions. Findings carry implications for designing inclusive and structured EIP mechanisms at national and international levels, and point to the need for future research that continues to diversify the geographic and institutional scope of EIP scholarship.