Toward Results-Based Social Policy Design and Implementation

This paper, from the Center for Global Development, analyzes some of the elements that cause the apparent perception in the realm of social policy, and in particular in the case of poverty alleviation and education policies in developing countries, that on the one hand, too little evidence is produced on the impact of specific policies and programs on human development, and on the other, that very little use is made of the available knowledge. We label this the “under use of scarce knowledge” paradox. We argue that, in order to move forward, it is necessary to go beyond looking separately at the supply and demand for evidence, which appears to be the prevalent view, and visualize more integrated approaches. One option for greater integration could be the evolution toward Results Based Social Policy Design and Implementation systems, which, as we propose here, consider incentives for use and production through a set of institutional arrangements that help focus public action on producing better outcomes.