International and non-governmental organizations in Geneva are increasingly coordinating on the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda features seventeen goals that are global in scope and highly interconnected. Such complexity allows different actors to draw different technical and moral interpretations about what impact looks like and how best to pursue it, reinforcing their ambiguity. Therefore, international Geneva actors need an approach to filter information and converge towards a common understanding of these global challenges. This approach is evidence-based thinking, i.e. the process of trying to align our beliefs on the current state of knowledge.
Applying evidence-based thinking in practice is, however, challenging because of behavioural, social and methodological reasons. While these barriers are important to take into account, they are not a good reason to discard evidence-based thinking for good and for all. Instead, pragmatic strategies must be put in place.
This GSPI think piece details what evidence-based thinking is, presents barriers to its implementation, and discusses relevant strategies to promote a culture of evidence and openness in Geneva.
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Evidence_based_Thinking__Challenges__and_Strategies_final.pdfMaxime Stauffer
Maxime Stauffer contributes to the strategy, methodology, and activities of the GSPI. He is the co-founder of the Social Complexity Lab Geneva, the co-founder and research director at Effective Altruism Geneva, advisor to the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. His academic background is in international relations and complex systems science. He conducts research on how to best translate scientific knowledge and methods into policy and on how to improve collective decision-making.