Building the research-policy nexus in South Africa: insights from a skills planning policy intervention

Abstract

This paper examines the formation and operation of a research-policy nexus in a research-based national-level government department intervention to improve skills planning policy in South Africa. Through the lens of evidence-informed policymaking, it reflects on understandings of evidence use in policy; it explores the interactions between actors in the nexus and the dynamic exchanges that shape this relationship. Based on interviews with researchers and senior government managers, this paper highlights points of concordance and discordance in research(-er) and policy(-maker) interactions in a functioning research-policy nexus. It suggests key means by which the nexus may be improved.