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The purpose of this paper is to expand the research into the “micro-level” of the effects of evidence-based activity on organisational change by focusing on an economic development agency's (EDA's) effort to spread the use of standardised measurements to improve accountability for the use of public funds.

The authors interviewed 19 key managers and staff of a large British EDA. Participant comments revealed concerns deeper than the technical measurement issue the agency brought in to study. The authors reconceptualised these concerns using the notion of a centre of calculation.

Although the EDA focused on standardised measurement as a technical issue, the authors find organisational issues such as the need to reconcile differing perceptions of the importance of measurement, a desire to improve organisational learning and a tension between analysts and project managers impeding accountability efforts and delaying agency growth.

Findings are based on interviews at one agency. The experience, however, suggests these issues are common to public agencies.

This model reveals technical concerns as part of more complex organisational issues – an understanding that may help public agencies better focus their accountability and development efforts.

The model the author's introduced informs studies of evidence-based policymaking at the intra-organisational level by showing that the technical aspects of agency work are part of a larger social concern. It also shows how standardisation for the sake of accountability paradoxically helps build agency power.

A growing number of African countries are starting to produce science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators. The purpose of this paper is to provide some lessons learnt in the production and use of STI indicators in Malawi and South Africa. It is compares the two countries’ efforts to conduct Research and Development (R&D) surveys and examines whether and how STI indicators are used in policymaking processes.

The study approach is qualitative. The research methodology encompasses a thorough review of both policy and academic literature as well as some interviews.

The study demonstrates that South Africa has a relatively developed institutional arrangement for undertaking R&D and innovation surveys and developing related STI indicators. There is evidence that efforts are being made to use STI indicators to inform policymaking in the country. On the other hand, Malawi conducted its first R&D survey under the African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators Initiative (ASTII) and has not established an institutional mechanism dedicated to producing STI indicators. There is no evidence that indicators are used in, or to inform, policymaking in the country.

Because of significant differences in STI policymaking histories, capacities and cultures of the two countries, it is not really useful to compare the STI production and use. Rather it is important to draw lessons from the efforts of the two countries.

The results suggest that the production of STI indicators should be embedded in policy processes. To be useful and effective, STI indicators production needs to be explicitly linked to policy formulation, evaluation and monitoring activities without necessarily undermining the independence of producing STI indicators.

Creating stand-alone programmes or agencies for R&D and innovation surveys without clear articulation with policymaking needs erodes opportunities of having evidence-based STI policy regimes.

Although in 2005 only South Africa and Tunisia had national programmes dedicated to the generation of R&D statistics, by the end of 2010 at least 19 African countries had experimented with conducting R&D surveys under the auspices of the ASTII of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. These countries accumulated different experiences and consequently build different kinds of institutional capacities. Through the Malawi and South Africa case studies, some important lessons for STI indicators production and use and STI policymaking can be drawn for developing countries in general and African countries in particular.

This research uses a multifaceted approach to develop an MPA/MPP curriculum to support a data science track within the existing MPA/MPP programs by identifying the core and elective areas needed.

The approach includes (1) identifying a suitable structure for MPA/MPP programs which can allow the program to develop its capacity to train students with the data science and general public administration skills to solve public policy problems and leave explicit space for local experimentation and modification; (2) defining bridging modules and required modules for the MPA/MPP programs; and (3) developing of data science track thought to make suggestions for the inclusion of suitable data science modules into the data science track and benchmarking the data science modules suggested with the best practices developed by other professional bodies. The authors review 46 NASPAA-accredited MPA/MPP programs from 40 (or 22.7%) schools to identify the suitable required modules and some potential data science and analytics courses that MPA/MPP programs currently provide as electives.

The proposal includes a three-course (six–nine credits, not counted in the program but as prerequisites) bridging module, a nine-course (27 credits) required module and a five-course (15 credits) data science track/concentration.

This work can provide a starting point for the public administration education community to develop graduate programs focusing on data science to cater to the needs of both public managers and society at large.

Despite technological advancements to enhance patient health, the risks of not discovering the correct interactions and trends in digital health are high. Hence, a careful policy is required for health coverage tailored to needs and capacity. Therefore, this study aims to explore the adoption of a cognitive computing decision support system (CCDSS) in the assessment of health-care policymaking and validates it by extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model.

A survey was conducted to collect data from different stakeholders, referred to as the 4Ps, namely, patients, providers, payors and policymakers. Structural equation modelling and one-way ANOVA were used to analyse the data.

The result reveals that the behavioural insight of policymakers towards the assessment of health-care policymaking is based on automatic and reflective systems. Investments in CCDSS for policymaking assessment have the potential to produce rational outcomes. CCDSS, built with quality procedures, can validate whether breastfeeding-supporting policies are mother-friendly.

Health-care policies are used by lawmakers to safeguard and improve public health, but it has always been a challenge. With the adoption of CCDSS, the overall goal of health-care policymaking can achieve better quality standards and improve the design of policymaking.

This study drew attention to how CCDSS as a technology enabler can drive health-care policymaking assessment for each stage and how the technology enabler can help the 4Ps of health-care gain insight into the benefits and potential value of CCDSS by demonstrating the breastfeeding supporting policy.

The shift from data-informed to data-driven educational policymaking is conceptually framed by institutional and transhumanist perspectives. Examples of the shift to large-scale quantitative data driving educational decision-making suggest that data-driven educational policy will not adjust for context to the degree as done by the data-informed or data-based policymaking. Instead, the algorithmization of educational decision-making is both increasingly realizable and necessary in light of the overwhelmingly big data on education produced annually around the world. Evidence suggests that the isomorphic shift from localized data and individual decision-making about education to large-scale assessment data has changed the nature of educational decision-making and national educational policy. Big data are increasingly legitimized in educational policy communities at national and international levels, which means that algorithms are assumed to be the best way to analyze and make decisions about large volumes of complex data. There is a conceptual concern, however, that decontextualized or de-humanized educational policies may have the effect of increasing student achievement, but not necessarily the translation of knowledge into economically, socially, or politically productive behavior.

Several governments in Canada have made commitments to adopting evidence-based policy development. Several obstacles to the adoption of this approach have been identified in the policy literature. However, this literature has lacked an economic perspective. This is unfortunate, since economics has produced the most fully developed normative theory of government policy in the social sciences and humanities. The main elements of this theory are the theory of market failure and the theory of non-market failure, and the integration of those two elements in what Charles Wolf called implementation analysis. The Austrian economics tradition also offers the implications of what is often called Hayek’s knowledge problem and the lessons learned from the economic calculation debate as contributions to the understanding of the challenges facing the application of evidence-based policy. The authors propose adding four economic elements to the current model of evidence-based policy development: (1) providing sufficient and convincing evidence that a market failure has occurred; (2) providing sufficient and convincing evidence that a non-market failure is unlikely to occur or if it does occur the damages from the non-market failure will be less serious than the harm resulting from the market failure; (3) an appreciation of the distributed and conflicted character of social knowledge; and (4) the technical challenges involved in constructing a social preference order. The authors illustrate the application of the economic approach to evidence-based policy with an example from rural land use policy in Ontario.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) count for over 80% of premature death worldwide. More than 76% of the total burden of diseases in Iran is devoted to NCDs. In line with the World Health Organization action plan, Iran has developed its national action plan that led to establishment of the National Committee for Prevention and Control of NCDs (INCDC), whose aim is 30% mortality reduction attributed to NCDs by 2030. The stewardship of health system is the cornerstone of performing and sustaining meaningful actions toward prevention and control of NCDs. The literature is tiny on how to materialize the stewardship and governance of health system. The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a national study that aimed to identity functions and subfunctions of stewardship of NCDs and its related risk factors in Iran.

This is a qualitative study. The authors conducted interviews with 18 purposefully selected interviewees until the authors reached saturation. Thematic content analysis was used for analysis and MAXQDA 10 was employed for data management. The difficulty of coordinating with interviewers and health policymakers in the field slowed the process of research progress.

The authors identified seven themes and categorized them as main functions for appropriate stewardship of NCDs in Iran, including intelligence generation; strategic framework; evidence-based policies/decisions; system design; resource allocation/development; capacity-building and enforcement/alignment; and categorized them as important.

The seven themes presented as stewardship functions include concepts and practical examples of the experiences and performance of leading countries in the field of NCDs control that can help policymakers and health managers for better descion-making.

Iran adopted its national action plan in 2015 and WHO selected Iran as a fast-track country in 2017. The study confirmed that to achieve the global targets, appropriate and contextual stewardship for any specific setting is fundamental. Iran needs to improve its stewardship for prevention and control of NCDs and implement its national action plan. Therefore, the functions and policies outlined in this article for the proper performance of NCDs can improve more meaningful practices in this area in Iran and many other countries.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the possibility of setting up a platform for inclusive policymaking process drawing upon the blockchain concept. The study posits that blockchain also has great potentials in non-financial applications, such as in policymaking, where there is a need for bottom-up approaches with more decentralized, distributed and evidence-based processes.

The study makes use of an analogy-based creative design methodology. The design science paradigm has its roots in engineering and the sciences of the artificial (Simon, 1996). As a problem-solving paradigm for solving complex engineering issues, design science seeks to create innovations that define the ideas, practices, technical capabilities and products through which the analysis, design, implementation and use of information systems can be effectively and efficiently accomplished. In the present study, the policy development theories and the logic of blockchain are synthesized to prepare a task model for the “IdeaChain” concept as a platform for creating, sharing and validating novel ideas as well as converting them into policies or new ventures through the funding mechanisms.

The IdeaChain concept is designed and demonstrated through its use in the domain of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy, which can be extended to cover all innovative activities linking the whole process from their emergence, funding, development, implementation and impact upon policy.

Blockchain is mostly discussed in literature with its impact on financial sector. IdeaChain is the first attempt to explore the potentials of blockchain in STI policymaking.

This study aims to elucidate institutional analysis as an effective approach to investigating and designing the multilevel policymaking system of online social networks (OSN) for achieving a participatory model.

The institutional mapping approach has been used to analyze Iran’s OSN multilevel policymaking system. A combination of two matrices, including institutions-institutions and institutions-functions, was used to perform the institutional mapping. Two main steps were taken to draw the mentioned matrices. First, a review of related studies in Iran’s OSN policymaking system was conducted and the policy functions mentioned in these studies were identified and categorized using the meta-synthesis. Second, based on analyzing two policy documents of Iran’s OSN, institutions and their interactions were identified and policy functions were allocated to institutions.

Based on the results, the most important policy functions in the current OSN policymaking system in Iran are support, regulatory, monitoring and evaluation, business environment development, culture building and promotion, organizing licenses and permissions, policymaking and legislation. Also, the results show that there are shortcomings in this system, some of the most important of which are lack of transparency in regulatory, little work in culture building and promotion, neglect of the training of specialized human resources and research and development, slow development of the business environment and neglecting the role of nongovernmental organizations in policymaking.

By examining and analyzing how different institutions operate within a multilevel policymaking system, the policymaking process and its overall effectiveness can be enhanced. This analysis helps identify any inconsistencies, overlaps or conflicts in the roles and policies of these institutions, leading to a better understanding of how a multilevel policymaking system is organized.