Enhance the global evidence architecture

We believe we can go farther, faster together by enhancing and leveraging the global evidence architecture.

Here is a core recommendation from our report related to multilateral organizations (recommendation 3).

The UN, the G20 and other multilateral organizations should endorse a resolution that commits these multilateral organizations and their member states to broaden their conception of evidence, and to support evidence-related global public goods and equitably distributed capacities to produce, share and use evidence. The ‘quintet of change’ meant to support the UN’s transformation from 2021 to 2025 explicitly includes data analytics and behavioural/implementation research, implicitly includes evaluation (under ‘performance and results orientation’), and is silent on the other needed forms of evidence.(1) The UN and other multilateral organizations (including the global commissions they sponsor) continue to rely on an ‘expert knows best’ model. The reinvigoration of the UN Secretary-General Scientific Advisory Board provides an opportunity to do better.(2) Much can be learned from the organizations that have pioneered more systematic and transparent approaches to using evidence, such as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Guidelines Review Committee (that develops normative guidance) and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Another core recommendations relevant to multilateral organizations is recommendation 4 (landmark report). Because of the role multilateral organizations serve, many other recommendations are relevant – for example recommendation 24 (funding). To find out about all 24 of our recommendations, see section 7.2 from our report.

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