The Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) has issued an article on the growth of ‘policy labs’ in public sectors around the world, examining whether they provide new ways of addressing PS challenges.
In the article, ANZSOG explores the role of policy labs and assesses the extent to which their purpose, structures and processes address three challenges.
The challenges were establishing the causality and value of public interventions; explaining mechanisms of change; and using research findings in public policy.
The article said that creating synergies between evaluation inquiry and policy labs could improve the design and implementation of public policy and programs.
It said its research covered 20 labs in 16 countries across Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia, including the NSW Behavioural Insights Unit and Auckland’s Co-Design Lab.
“Half of the selected labs are exclusively owned by public sector entities representing different levels of governance,” the article says.
“The labs operate at local, regional and national levels and some are also active at the international level.”
It identified three main lab specialisations: one serving the Government by improving public services/policies and training public sector staff; another serving the community by solving specific social problems such as health, poverty, urban development and gender equality; and a third serving both the Government and the community.
“The study found limited evidence on labs’ longer-term impact and the measurement of meaningful change. Instead, labs focused on the short-term and in some cases, process-related outcomes,” the article says.
“Looking at current lab practices, the study found labs have little to contribute to the ongoing debate addressing the challenges of valuing interventions.”
It said the labs could benefit from incorporating existing knowledge from evaluation into their practices, as evaluation practice offered a high level of emphasis on obtaining strong causality.
ANZSOG’s 22-page article can be accessed at this PS News link.
