Gaps between research and policy formulation pinpointed
There is increasing concern about the gap between research and policy practice, and that while there is a lot of research already out there, it remains unutilised.
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis ( BIDPA) Executive Director, Dr. Gloria Somolekae said at the second National Health Research Symposium that it is important that research and policy practice be linked because decisions in policy formulation should be informed and grounded on evidence.
She also acknowledged that research is vital in every sector, public, private, health, trade and transport among others.
“Decisions are made all the time in all these sectors. They should be based on something. This something is expected to be generated through research, which may be beyond academic and policy based,” Dr. Somolekae said, adding that decisions are costly and involve allocation of resources.
Her concern is that resources must be allocated where they will make a difference in addressing situations.
Dr. Somolekae said at the symposium that was held under the theme, ‘ Unearthing Health Research for Better Uptake: Linking Research and Policy Practice,’ that in acknowledging that there is a problem, the office of the Permanent Secretary to the President set up a Task Team in 2018 to conduct a situational analysis of the public policy process and to produce a Framework for the development of Public Policy.
The problem then, was that government experienced challenges with inconsistencies in the processes and quality of public policies across the public service. In addition, there was no blueprint that government used to guide the policy process across the entire public service.
This, according to Dr. Somolekae, meant that each ministry followed its own ways of formulating policy. There was also lack of a policy guide resulting in the poor quality of policies as a result of the unsatisfactory quality of the policy process. In January 2020, government published, ‘ Guidelines For Public Policy Development For Public Officers.’
Dr. Somolekae further attributes the gap between research and policy to the fact that although research is available, it is inaccessible to policy makers. “They do not know about it, or it is not well packaged for their use,” she said, adding that in some instances research may be available but of poor quality.
“Evidence needs to be of high quality and have credibility. Credibility comes from the professional robustness of the study and whether the source is trusted,” she said.
Dr. Somolekae says the political context is critical in the use of evidence. She explained that data indicates that where the political system is open and accountability is valued, research will be relied upon to shape action. “There will be a willingness to have success in policy and action,” she said.
The other possible reason, according to Dr. Somolekae is that while the focus was on having good policies, well formulated, following the right template, not enough attention went to ensuring that the use of research and evidence is planned for, executed and monitored.
“The most common mistake that technocrats make with respect to policy and use of evidence is to assume that once the evidence is available it will be used,” she said, adding that other factors that are still on the way include poor traditions, old ways of doing things, the policy process being complex and not linear in its development, as well as traditional theories of policymaking which don’t always hold.
Dr. Somolekae says going forward, there is need to build on what has been done, and to utilise existing information. There is also need to reflect on current policy development practice to identify where exactly the problem of failure to use evidence lies.
“It is easy to think one knows but it is not always the case. Once the specific area is identified, it has to be clear what is going to be done to address the problem, by who,” she said.
While the Ministry of Health acknowledges challenges, Botswana has made commendable progress in health science research. The Minister, Dr. Edwin Dikoloti attributes the success to the presence of collaborative arrangements with specialised research institutions and centres of excellence.
According to Dikoloti statistics on the governance of health research in four Eastern and Southern African countries - Botswana, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda - shows that Botswana had 784 publications per one million inhabitants, compared to Kenya with 294, Uganda with 198 and Zambia with 166.