Synthesise evidence to make it accessible

Water and catchment policy can be technically and politically complex. Technical experts cannot anticipate the range of legitimate perspectives or adjudicate the values conflicts that drive disputes over water policy.

Partial presentation of available evidence is too often used to argue for particular policy options and close down further debate. We want to increase policymaker and stakeholder demand for evidence to inform open policy deliberation. 

We evaluate available evidence, assess knowledge gaps and communicate uncertainties to demonstrate how available evidence can inform different framings of policy issues, alter the evaluation of policy options, and reveal key issues requiring deliberation. We engage with experts to help produce independent evidence syntheses that stakeholders can use to examine their own thinking and better understand other perspectives.

We evaluate, synthesise and make publicly accessible, evidence for policy dilemmas where good decisions require engaging with a wide range of stakeholders and complex evidence sources, and where that evidence is uncertain, incomplete or disputed.  We recognise and seek to address the cognitive biases that complicate discussion and deliberation of issues.

Read about our other workstreams:

• Deliberative approaches 

• Dialogues and forums

• Engage with institutions