Dylan Kneale and Antonio Rojas-García reflect on recent work exploring the use of evidence in local public health decision-making. In new climates of public health decision-making, where the local salience of research evidence becomes an even more important determinant of its use, they question how much research is being wasted because it is not generalisable in local settings.

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Sandy Oliver discusses whether the worlds of academia and humanitarianism can combine to improve the delivery and understanding of the processes and benefits of humanitarian aid through use of evidence.
Interest is growing, when making decisions within the humanitarian sector, in drawing on systematic reviews of studies that assess the effects of different policies or practices. As in other sectors, such research evidence is considered alongside what else is known, such as about competing priorities, social norms, available resources or ease of implementing a programme. Professor Sandy Oliver argues that in contexts where rigorous studies of effects are few and far between, perhaps because conducting research is difficult in such circumstances, it is useful to learn from systematic reviews that encompass other forms of knowledge that are commonly held by individuals and organisations delivering humanitarian aid. These broader systematic reviews increasingly come from partnerships of academics and humanitarian organisations. Strengthening the links between research and work in the field helps create evidence-informed policy/practice, and policy/practice-informed evidence.

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Many humanitarians are evidence-aware, but may find it difficult to draw on what is known or find knowledge that speaks to their context. They may also be pressed for time to find or judge the relevance of what is often a dispersed literature. To address this gap the Humanitarian Evidence Programme, a partnership between Oxfam and Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, published eight systematic reviews in areas identified as a priority by humanitarian policy and practitioner stakeholders. Typical of the sector, and similar to international development, decision-makers ask very broad questions. Kelly Dickson and Mukdarut Bangpan reflect on the challenges we encountered when producing a mixed methods evidence synthesis for this programme, on mental health and psychosocial programmes for people affected by humanitarian emergencies.

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