Role of measurable indicators in evidence-informed policy making - Romanian Case Study

Background: The need for evidence-based policy making and for processes to better inform policy making has been deeply discussed in the past decades. To this aim, a Delphi process was implemented among the countries participating to the REPOPA project, including Romania, to validate, contextualize and implement with stakeholders four thematic sets of measurable indicators for evidence-informed policy making (EIPM). Methods: A half-a-day national conference (2016) preceded by two internet-based Delphi questionnaires (2015) were implemented in Romania as part of the Delphi process. A total of 8 experts participating in the national conference were chosen based on their expertise: sport for all, health promotion/public health, political sciences, education. The role of the experts was to analyze the sets of indicators, reach consensus and give recommendations for physical activity EIPM. Results: 23 indicators grouped in 4 sets were submitted to SWOT analysis and mapped to policy phases during the national conference. `Communication and Participation` set was clearly linked to the need of a comprehensive mapping of resources for communication and participation in EIPM processes (human, infrastructure/logistics, etc.). Additionally, other recommendations given for the `Documentation - Retrieval/Production` set of indicators were: building international partnerships among organizations; funding, organizing and using scientific research for policy making. Discussion: One of the outcomes of the Romanian REPOPA Delphi process was a list of recommendations given by experts. Among other, they agreed that the sets of indicators should be used for EIMP. Mapping the resources for EIPM is the foreseen next step in order to facilitate this process.

Lo studio riguarda la contestualizzazione in Romania di una serie di indicatori di evidence-informed policy making sviluppati nell'ambito del progetto europeo REPOPA.