Managing Evidence to Align Central Policy Recommendations and Local Practice – A Theoretical Framework

Politicians and executive bureaucracies at the national level continue to aspire to use evidence as a basis for delivering more effective public services. However, in many areas, policy implementation is shaped by local bureaucracies and public service professionals responsible for delivering services to citizens. Studies have shown that local practice often deviates from evidence-based recommendations. This implementation gap has created tensions between two perspectives: theories of evidence-based policy, which focus on improving central policy imposition through incentives for local actors, and evidence-informed approaches, which emphasize the importance of local autonomy for better alignment between central recommendations and local practices. This paper bridges these perspectives by proposing a theoretical framework that integrates evidence, incentives, and local discretion in central evidence management, thus aiming to align central policy recommendations and local practice.