Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
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SDG 17 is about strengthening global partnerships to support and implement the goals. To this McMaster physician, that means making evidence accessible to those with the power to act on it. |
John Lavis, Professor, Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact
Improving policymaking with strong global partnerships and the best research evidence
Government policymakers and stakeholders are heavily influenced by trusted advisors and interest groups. What’s really needed, according to John Lavis, is evidence. But the kind of evidence that can and should shape critical decisions is inevitably too hard to pinpoint and access.
So he and his team launched a free, comprehensive online tool to address the problem, making the best evidence accessible to those in a position to act on it. It’s helping 20 government sectors achieve the development goals.
And when the pandemic took hold, the team went a step further, creating a one-stop-shop for COVID-19 decision-makers. Lavis says we need living evidence syntheses because every government in the world wants to know when the science changes.
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