Short Abstract

This session shows how structured products like evidence maps and digital summaries help turn evaluations into decisions. With examples from youth, employment, and climate policy, it highlights how design and communication make evidence easier for policymakers to use.

Description

Evaluation is intended to serve two functions: accountability and lesson learning. The lessons from an evaluation can go beyond the intervention being evaluated to be applicable to other interventions in other settings. One channel for evaluation findings being transferred to other settings is when their findings are summarised in systematic reviews. But, like evaluation reports, systematic reviews often remain unread and are not accessible to decision-makers. Traditional outputs like academic papers or policy briefs fail to connect with decision makers. These formats often assume too much time, background knowledge, or interest from the audience. As a result, evidence ends up being underused, no matter how strong it is.

Knowledge brokering, or knowledge translation, has emerged as a means of getting evidence into use. This presentation presents examples of a specific form of evidence product, called Evidence-Based Decision-Making Products based on systematic reviews of evidence from evaluations. These products include interactive toolkits, visual platforms, and digital summaries based on systematic reviews and evidence and gap maps.

In this presentation, we share insights from three approaches:

1. Evidence toolkits

a. Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit (UK) – A platform that presents evidence on what works to reduce youth violence. Each approach is rated for its impact, strength of evidence, and cost. The toolkit has been used by government agencies, local councils, and even the Prime Minister’s Office, to shape funding decisions and policy strategies.

b. Youth Employment Evidence Platform (Sub-Saharan Africa) – A collaboration with the European Commission to help guide investments in youth employment. The platform includes a meta-analysis across ten interventions, plain-language summaries, and policy-relevant metrics. It supports planning by showing what works, where, and at what cost.

2. Evidence Q&A (Global) – The CIGAR Evidence portal is designed to support gender-responsive climate and agriculture policies. It organizes complex evidence into a simple question-and-answer format, helping users explore topics like how women adapt to climate change or how gender affects access to resources.

3. Evidence summary evidence and gap maps – Evidence and Gap Maps (EGMs) are of growing interest, being used to identify what evidence exists in particular policy are. These maps show what evidence exists, not what it says. We have worked on two projects in which the map does contain cell-wise evidence summaries: Child Protection Research, and Conflict and Atrocity Prevention.

Across all these cases, the core idea is the same; communication is not just the last step in evaluation, it is part of the design. We involve stakeholders early, ask what they need, and build tools around their questions. We use plain language, strong visuals, clear structure, and digital formats that are easy to navigate. We also build in features like filtering, comparisons, and implementation guidance to help people move from knowing to doing.

These efforts have already led to tangible results: budget decisions tied to toolkit ratings, local governments revising programs based on evidence, and greater awareness among international donors of where their money can make the biggest difference.