Parliaments play a critical role in our national evidence systems. They\u2019re charged with making laws, holding our elected governments to account, scrutinising their performance and representing citizens.<\/p>\n
But when we talk about evidence-informed decision-making we too often focus on the executive branch of government rather than parliament.<\/p>\n
Recently, this has begun to change. Evidence use in parliaments is a fast-growing area of research and practice, which is now attracting more stakeholders.<\/p>\n
In this article, I\u2019ll discuss five key developments to date and two new directions to explore within this field.<\/p>\n
A new systematic review from the Universite de Laval<\/a> has noted the sector\u2019s growth over the last 10 years. It\u2019s also highlighted that there\u2019s never been a systematic review on this topic!<\/p>\n The International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA<\/u>)<\/a> \u00a0coordinated a legislative science advice agenda process. This process mapped the unanswered, high-level questions<\/a> concerning science advice in parliaments.<\/p>\n A new two-volume book on evidence use in African parliaments<\/a> has offered many valuable insights from across the continent. And an in-depth report<\/a> has also examined the use of evidence in the UK\u2019s parliament.<\/p>\n The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions\u2019 (<\/a>IFLA\u2019s) parliamentary libraries and research services section<\/a> is a longstanding network of parliamentary research and library services.<\/p>\n Other networks include the African Parliamentarians Network on Development Evaluation<\/a> (APNODE) and INGSA, which hosts a Special Interest Division on parliamentary science advice<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new International Parliamentary Engagement Network<\/a> has a broader remit around public engagement with parliament, which is relevant to evidence use.<\/p>\n Also, the Africa Evidence Network<\/a> has been a frequent space for the exploration of parliamentary evidence use.<\/p>\n But despite this\u00a0lively interest in the field, it appears\u00a0the\u00a0Global Commission on Evidence<\/a>\u00a0has yet to fully\u00a0recognise the crucial role of parliaments.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s brought a welcome, high-level call to action on evidence use generally, including a focus on national evidence systems and citizens as producers and users of evidence. But I think the unique mandate and capabilities of parliaments as evidence actors in both these spaces deserve more attention by the Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n For the first time, parliaments have been recognised as a key user group in the World Bank\u2019s Statistical Performance Indicators<\/a>. This framework assesses the maturity of national statistical systems.<\/p>\n The Hewlett Foundation<\/a> supported the first formal partnership between the Parliament of Ghana and the Ghana Statistics Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)<\/a> and the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st<\/sup> century (PARIS 21<\/u>)<\/a> teamed up to support a similar project on statistics use in Vanuatu<\/a>\u2019s<\/a> parliament.<\/p>\n External relationships with evidence providers are critical to evidence use in parliaments, which typically have a small internal team of researchers. They provide evidence to MPs and committees across an enormous breadth of topics.<\/p>\n Parliamentary Research Weeks aim to foster connections between parliaments and local evidence providers to strengthen these relationships. These have been implemented in several countries: e.g., the UK, Ghana and Uganda<\/a>, and Canada<\/a>. Austria will have its first Research Day<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n The UK\u2019s parliament has partnered with evidence brokers and research institutions via Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement\u2019s (CAPE\u2019s) project<\/a>. This has been done to strengthen engagement between researchers and policy-makers.<\/p>\n The IPU\u2019s 2022 e-parliament report<\/a> drew on the experiences of 123 parliaments, internationally. It describes parliaments\u2019 \u2018rapid acceleration in the use of digital tools<\/a>\u2019 after the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n The UK\u2019s Universities Policy Engagement Network<\/a> conducted a survey. It showed how the transition towards virtual committee hearings opened up \u2018considerable untapped participatory potential\u2019 among the academic research community<\/a>. Especially among female, ethnic minority and disabled academics.<\/p>\n The pandemic highlighted opportunities in parliaments\u2019 digitalisation, like the increased sharing of parliamentary evidence products online. These include research reports, committee briefings and records of debates.<\/p>\n This is an important step towards transparency in evidence use, which is part of \u2018the good governance of evidence<\/a>\u2019. It makes it easier for researchers, civil society organisations and the public to see what evidence has been used by parliament and how.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n2. A growing number of networks are interested in evidence use in parliaments<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. Some actors have developed a specific area of interest within the field: statistics use in parliaments<\/strong><\/h2>\n
4. Parliaments are forming new local evidence partnerships<\/strong><\/h2>\n
5. Technology is bringing transparency and diversity<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Two new directions to explore<\/strong><\/h1>\n
1. Exploring the role of parliaments in statistics systems<\/strong><\/h2>\n