Using Evidence to Drive Decision-Making in Government

This report presents the findings from the Policy Analysis and Decision-Making Capacity project, funded by the Office of Science and Data Policy within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. During Phase 1 of the project, we conducted a review to assess grey and peer-reviewed literature describing whether and how effectively decision-makers use program evaluation findings to inform their decisions on programs and policies. In Phase 2, we conducted interviews with thought leaders and experts in the fields of evaluation, dissemination, and using evidence to drive decision-making. The purpose of the interviews was to understand the context of how evaluation and research results are used to make decisions within government and to identify opportunities for improvements in that decision-making process in addition to what we found in the literature.