Partnership for Evidence and Equity in Responsive Social Systems (PEERSS) (previously PERLSS)

Despite the well-acknowledged importance of using evidence for decision-making by many development actors, organizations in most countries are not using timely and responsive mechanisms to effectively support evidence-informed policymaking.

This project involves and supports organizations in eleven countries individually and as a network (six African and five non-African) to facilitate the use of evidence from policymakers and stakeholders in order to clarify development problems and causes, frame options to address them, and identify implementation considerations.

Supported through a co-funding partnership between IDRC and Hewlett, the project will build on the experiences and expertise of these organizations in informing health policies to test whether the mechanisms used in health systems — such as rapid response services, stakeholder dialogues, and citizen panels — can be adapted and used by other social actors. The aim is to build conducive environments and systems for evidence-informed policymaking about social systems generally, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in particular.

The project will study if and how the piloted mechanisms work and their effectiveness in facilitating the use of evidence by policymakers in the non-health sector. It will also explore if and how the strength of participating organizations, as well as their relationships with other organizations in each country’s ecosystem of policy-supporting organizations, increases over time. There will be a particular focus on whether the mechanisms and their impacts vary according to context or issues across countries. This learning about evidence-informed policymaking will be consolidated and shared among the participating organizations and beyond.