P-ISSN: 2808-0467
E-ISSN: 2808-5051
Homepage: https://iss.internationaljournallabs.com/index.php/iss
1699
EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY: DATA’S USE IN SUPPORTING PUBLIC
POLICY PROCESS
Isnaeni Yuliani
1
, Endang Larasati
2
, Kismartini
2
, Tri Yuningsih
2
1
Faculty of Law, Social, and Political Sciences, Universitas Terbuka, Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia
2
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia
1
isnaeniyulian[email protected]
2
endanglarasatiprof@gmail.com
3
4
triyuningsih@yahoo.com
PAPER INFO ABSTRACT
Received:
December 2022
Revised:
December 2022
Approved:
December 2022
Background: Reforming the bureaucracy has become essential to
transforming the nation's way of life. With it, modifications are made to the
government administration system to improve its effectiveness and
efficiency. Improving the caliber of policies is one of the key goals of
bureaucratic reform.
Aim: Therefore, through this article, the author aims to provide an overview
of the meaning of data/evidence in the public policy process.
Method: The writing of this article used the literature review method by
utilizing secondary data or sources in the form of journals, books,
documentation, the internet and various libraries that are relevant to the issues
and topics of this article.
Findings: The researcher concluded that the contribution of the EBP
approach in the bureaucracy and policy of public institutions in each policy
cycle can be a breakthrough in the birth of innovative policies. The use of
research data is an important aspect in the success of government
bureaucratic policies. Moreover, superior research as a source of data can
identify problems more precisely and help governments design the most
effective and innovative policy options.
KEYWORDS
evidence-based policy, data, public policy
© The author(s). This work is distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)
INTRODUCTION
Bureaucratic reformation has become the backbone in changing the life of nation. With it,
arrangements are carried out on the system of government administration to make it more
effective and efficient. One of the important bureaucratic reform agendas to realize is
improving the quality of policies.
World Bank data in 2017 shows that the quality of public policy in Indonesia is still far
behind other ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and Thailand. According
to the Deputy of Social Statistics of the Central Statistics Agency of the Republic of Indonesia,
Jousairi Hasbullah, one of the causes of the unsuccessful implementation of a policy is the large
number of public policy products that do not base on research data or the existence of inaccurate
and incomplete research. Asmara (2012) stated that in general, policy making in Indonesia is
currently not based on the results of policy research or social research. Furthermore, Pratikno
(2013) added that currently decision making in Indonesia is based more on political interests
and based on popular policies, not on research that can actually produce more effective policies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a real picture of the importance of a policy must
be based on actual data in society. During the 2019-2021 pandemic, the policy of determining
the status of PPKM (Enforcing Restrictions on Community Activities) of an area is periodically
Evidence-Based Policy: Data’s Use in Supporting Public Policy Process
1700 Interdisciplinary Social Studies, 2(3), Dec 2022
updated once a week where to determine the PPKM level is based on data on the distribution
of COVID-19 cases. This has the implication that to be able to produce a good public policy
should be based on data and evidence.
The Center for Policy Analysts-State Administration Institutions (PUSAKA-LAN)
mentioned that one of the strategies for addressing the many problematic public policies is the
need to focus on how a policy can be applicable and impactful, and a policy needs to be
evidence-based. In Indonesia, this provision has actually been regulated in Act Number 12 of
2011 Article 43 paragraph (3) which reads "The Bill must be accompanied by an academic
manuscript". It implies that the initial stage of the policy-making process is an academic paper
which means policy must be based on scientific research first. Unfortunately, the tendency that
often occurs in government bureaucracies is that research and academic studies conducted by
policymaking teams tend not to be truly integrated into the policies issued. In fact, it is not
uncommon for studies and research not to be carried out systematically and integrated in the
decision/policy making cycle at the Institute (Cartwright & Hardie, 2012).
The use of evidence-based research Evidence Based Policy (EBP) is one of the alternatives
that can be used in the process of formulating a policy. As a developing country, Indonesia is
expected to follow developed countries that have used the concept of EBP or evidence-based
policies.
The PEW Charitable Trust and the MacArthur Foundation (2014) define EBP as a policy
that uses the best available research and information regarding program outcomes to guide
decisions at all stages of the policy process and at every level in the governance structure. More
simply the LAN defines EBP as a policy taken based on data and facts.
Kwelju (2019) discovered that public policy does not significantly affect tourism
improvement in Ambon and that more efforts are needed in implementing it. On another
occasion, Agindawati (2019) stated that the implementation of public policy should follow its
initial planning. The two research show that more efforts need to be included in supporting
public policy. Furthermore, Aditya et al. (2021) revealed that evidence-based policy is
important since it is based on case studies, experiments, as well as miscellaneous analyses.
These statements brought the researchers to the assumption in which public policy-making
should involve more parties and data to reinforce the application of public policy in general.
Therefore, it is necessary to understand what kind of data and facts can contribute to the
birth of an innovative and positively impactful public policy, in which the policy becomes
applicable regardless of situations and may encourage more innovative aspects to emerge.
Based on the description above, through the article, the authors aimed to provide an overview
of the meaning of data/evidence in the public policy process.
METHOD
The writing of this article uses the literature review method by utilizing secondary data or
sources in the form of journals, books, documentation, the internet and various libraries that
are relevant to the issues and topics of this article. This literature review was carried out by the
method of searching and collecting library data, reading and recording, processing and
analyzing writing materials.
Evidence-Based Policy: Data’s Use in Supporting Public Policy Process
1701 Interdisciplinary Social Studies, 2(3), Dec 2022
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The word data/datum comes from Latin which means fact. However, when viewed
from a scientific sense, data is a picture of an event faced (Kismartini et al., 2014). Meanwhile,
the concept of data in the Evidence-Based Policy (EBP) approach, is data that is conveyed
scientifically to policymakers.
Head (2008) classify 'data' in the EBP approach into four categories, including: 1)
statistical and administrative data, which helps describe the current state of an issue and
explains historical trends; 2) research-based data, which describes causal relationships. It
contributes to our understanding of "why things happen in their own way" and explains the
relationship between issues; 3) data from the public and stakeholders that contribute to our
understanding of who is assessing policies and how they are likely to respond; and 4) data on
processes from evaluation, which help explain past or similar achievements.
Although the EBP accommodates a variety of different data sources, the Australian
Productivity Commission (2009) stresses there are at least three characteristics of 'data',
namely: 1) the data must be broad, tested, thorough and ideally capable of being replicated; 2)
the data must be robust and avoid the pitfalls of common methodologies; and 3) the whole
process should be transparent and debatable.
Head (2008) in Three Lenses of Evidence-Based Policy categorizes the data framework
in the EBP approach through three points of view, namely: First, political knowledge, which is
data that provides an overview of a policy must get political support. Therefore, policymakers
must certainly have a setting agenda, a scale of priorities and a growing political agenda.
Cookson (2005) argues that good data in the EBP approach does not refer only to analytical
ability but also political support.
Second, scientific research-based. Knowledge will provide input for policy innovations
that have a positive impact. Research based on cross-discipline will provide a positive
perspective because it provides diverse viewpoints from various theoretical approaches. For
this, researchers need to carry out research processes very strictly supported by the capacity to
read data and process systematically within an academic framework.
Third, practical implementation knowledge. This practical implementation knowledge is
data sourced from field practitioners or field officers who understand the situation map. Field
officers can provide an overview of the challenges, constraints, and obstacles in a policy that
can be used as evaluation material to get the maximum achievement of policy results.
Figure 2. Three Data or Evidence Lenses
Source: Head (2008)