Understanding the organisational context for evidence-informed policy-making

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The primary authors of this document are Louise Shaxson, Ajoy Datta, Mapula Tshangela and Bongani Matomela; support was given by Narnia Bohler-Muller, Nikki Funke, Linda Godfrey, Gary Pienaar, Nedson Pophiwa Wilma Strydom and Ke Yu. This has been a highly collaborative effort and we are very grateful to all individuals who have consented to be interviewed, attended meetings, read and commented on draft reports and offered their insights, opinions and advice. We are also grateful to those people who offered their time and expertise during interviews for the five diagnosis studies. For reasons of confidentiality they are not listed. In South Africa, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) programme managed a project working with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to help enhance its approach to policy-making by strengthening its demand for and use of evidence. Teams from HSRC, CSIR (in South Africa) and ODI (in the UK) have been working with DEA staff to help them understand what may need to be done to strengthen DEA’s approach to evidence-informed policy-making. Mapula Tshangela has led the work internally. The effort has been highly collaborative and we are very grateful to all DEA staff who have consented to being interviewed, attended meetings, read and commented on draft reports and offered their opinions and advice.