Evidence Informed Decision Making and Its Effects on Policy Formulation in Kitui County Assembly; Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of evidence informed decision making on policy formulation in Kitui County Assembly, Kenya. The study used descriptive research design. The target population included members of the County Assembly Service Board, Members of County Assembly, and the staff. Semi-structured questionnaire with both closed and open ended questions were used to collect the data. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The study established that institutional culture, research design, technical support and the uptake of research results have significant effect on policy formulation.. The study concluded that evidence informed decision making has significant effect on policy formulation at Kitui County Assembly with institutional culture having the largest effect followed by technical support, uptake of research results and lastly research design. The study recommended that the human resource managers of Kitui County Assembly should align the beliefs, views, attitudes and opinions of the staff towards evidence informed decision making for policy formulation. The staff working in different departments at Kitui County Assembly should collaborate to ensure that research evidence has the required attributes that would inform concrete policy formulation. The top management together with the human resource managers at Kitui County Assembly should improve on technical support by organizing for more training of the staff on evidence informed decision making. The communication managers at Kitui County Assembly should establish relevant platforms to disseminate and implement research results for use in decision making.