My name is Nicole Germano, and I serve as the Washington Evaluators’ Communications Chair. By day, I am an evaluation contractor at the Department of State. This week, Washington Evaluators will be sharing a series of posts related to the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, in celebration of the legislation’s fifth birthday.
The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, also known as the Evidence Act, was signed into law in January 2019. While the fifth anniversary of this legislation may be all the buzz in our local community of Washington, DC, the law has wide-reaching implications for federally-funded projects in the United States and around the world. For those who may be unfamiliar with the Evidence Act, this post is here to give you a quick primer.
The bipartisan law was born out of recommendations focused on improving access to data, enhancing privacy protections, and building capacity for evidence-informed policymaking that were made to Congress and the President by the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking (Evidence Commission). The Evidence Act addresses several of those recommendations, with the aim of promoting the use of evidence to inform decision-making at federal agencies.
It does this in three ways, as laid out in the Act’s three titles:
- The Evidence Act promotes evidence building activities by requiring federal agencies to designate a chief evaluation officer and submit annual evaluation plans. It also requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to identify best practices for evaluation, and for agencies to adhere to those best practices.
- The law promotes more open data by requiring that federal agencies ensure data assets are machine-readable and that they name a chief data officer to develop and maintain a comprehensive data inventory.
- The Evidence Act promotes evidence sharing by requiring federal agencies to make data assets available for other statistical agencies.
As an evaluator working as a contractor in the federal space, I’ve witnessed first-hand how the first part of the law (Title I) has meaningfully impacted my team’s day-to-day work. This part of the legislation outlines three key aspects of learning and evaluation: creating evidence-building plans (perhaps better known as learning agendas), establishing an annual evaluation plan, and conducting capacity assessments. Formally recognizing these best practices as part of legislation has paved the way for new guidance and resources, increased staffing and capacity-building, and new requirements for evidence building across the federal government. This week, we’ll be exploring exactly what that means for the evaluation community, and we’ll be looking ahead to what we hope to see in the future.
Interested in learning more about the Evidence Act? The following organizations provide a wealth of information on the legislation, its background, and ongoing implementation. When I first joined the evaluation field, many of these resources helped get me up to speed. Others are new, focusing on the fifth anniversary of the Evident Act and offer additional perspectives on its impact on the field.
Rad Resources
Data Foundation
The team at the Data Foundation has compiled a series of Evidence Act Resources. We recommend checking out some of their recent webinars and blog posts:
- How 5 Years of the Evidence Act Reshaped Government Evaluation: Measuring Success, Elevating Evidence, Empowering Programs
- The Evidence Act: From Promise to Progress – Examining Impacts and Charting the Path Forward
- Commentary: The Evidence Act’s Impact — 5 Years of Progress
Results for America
Results for America has put together resources on:
Office of Evaluation Sciences
OES offers three Evidence Act toolkits to help agencies learn from leading practices and case studies, including the Learning Agenda Toolkit, Annual Evaluation Plan Toolkit, Capacity Assessment Toolkit.
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