Papers by Carina van Rooyen
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2022
For decades, researchers, knowledge brokers and policymakers have been working to increase the us... more For decades, researchers, knowledge brokers and policymakers have been working to increase the use of evidence in policymaking. This has spanned a wide range of approaches, from developments in evidence generation, to efforts to increase demand amongst decision-makers, and everything in between. Policymakers are central in this process, and we have well documented examples of how the policy system in some countries is increasingly embedding evidence into routine decision-making processes. These structural shifts are the holy grail of those who work to support the use of evidence, achieving degrees of ‘ownership’ and ‘institutionalisation’ of evidence-informed policy within governments. However, if one examines evidence generation, you see a lack of equivalent structural developments in the system for evidence generation, in particular research evidence. Academics may be increasingly likely to disseminate their research effectively. Funders may be demanding greater policy impact from...
Chapter 4 in the book <em>Knowledge for Justice: Critical Perspectives from Southern Africa... more Chapter 4 in the book <em>Knowledge for Justice: Critical Perspectives from Southern African-Nordic Research Partnerships.</em>
The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence is establishing centres worldwide to enhance evidenc... more The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence is establishing centres worldwide to enhance evidence-based decision-making on questions of importance in environmental sustainability. This has included the establishment in 2012 of a Centre at the University of Johannesburg. Our work draws heavily on a model for synthesizing research evidence for decision-making established in health care. This involves identifying and reviewing all the available research evidence relevant to a particular question, which is then critically ...
micro-leasing serve as effective financial inclusion interventions enabling poor people, and espe... more micro-leasing serve as effective financial inclusion interventions enabling poor people, and especially women, to engage in meaningful economic opportunities in low- and middle-income countries? A systematic review of the evidence
Drawing on their recent study of South Africa’s evidence ecosystem, Ruth Stewart, Harsha Dayal, L... more Drawing on their recent study of South Africa’s evidence ecosystem, Ruth Stewart, Harsha Dayal, Laurenz Langer and Carina van Rooyen, show how the global north has much to learn from evidence ecosystems in the global south. Outlining five lessons that can be learnt from the South African evidence ecosystem, they argue that if notions of a global evidence ecosystem are to be taken seriously, they would do well to start with the experience of the Global South.
As Covid-19 sweeps across the globe, one of the biggest questions in many minds is ‘how will this... more As Covid-19 sweeps across the globe, one of the biggest questions in many minds is ‘how will this crisis affect Africa?’ (Nyenswah, 2020; Pillay, 2020; Wood, 2020; World Bank, 2020a). Fears abound that the pandemic will multiply and deepen existing socio-economic issues, such as high levels of unemployment,poverty, and inequality.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 2018
In a highly unequal society such as South Africa, higher education is seen as having a social jus... more In a highly unequal society such as South Africa, higher education is seen as having a social justice mandate to widen participation, and using technology is one way to achieve this. One university in South Africa made mobile devices compulsory for all first-year students since 2014. This article, drawing on data collected from first-year Humanities students at this university, attempts to understand whether the use of mobile devices for learning met requirements for a socially just pedagogy. We used a sequential mixed methods research design, first surveying the first-year Humanities students in late 2015, and then followed up with focus group discussions in 2016 and early 2017. We utilise Nancy Fraser’s idea of ‘participatory parity’ to unpack a socially just pedagogy, and specifically focus on the component of access to resources. We found that most students had functional access to devices and on-campus data. The manner in which these were accessed was affirmative, rather than t...
Palgrave Communications, 2019
The evidence-informed approach to policy-making and implementation is, at its core, about better ... more The evidence-informed approach to policy-making and implementation is, at its core, about better decisions for a better future. It is focused on the effective use of scarce resources, on avoiding harm and maximising good. It is grounded in principles of equity and equality, of accountability and transparency. Given these characteristics, for those of us who work in this field, there is arguably a moral, economic, social and political case for paying closer attention to evidence-informed decision-making ecosystems in the South. Evidencebased policy and implementation, or evidence-informed decision-making in line with the most recent thinking, is often framed from two inter-related but limited perspectives: first, it is viewed as an approach that has originated from 'developed' Northern countries, and second, it is conceptualised as a technical intervention. However, there has been a shift in how the approach is conceived, moving away from assumptions that it is an intervention implemented from outside, from the North, for the benefit of the South. As part of this shift, certain initiatives in Africa have gained greater momentum. It is in acknowledging that there are different ways to think (epistemic diversity) about Southern evidence-informed decisionmaking, that this work has arisen. It seizes on the opportunity to view evidence-informed decision-making in a new light, exploring the evidence ecosystems in the South as systems strongly influenced by, but not defined by, Northern stimuli, including, but not limited to, technical interventions. This work set out to describe the evidence ecosystem in South Africa. In doing so, it finds that the ecosystem is increasingly resilient despite some limitations. It has strong structural foundations, includes many diverse organisations, is supported by not inconsiderable investment, is enabled by growing and significant capacity, contains iterations and innovations, and last but not least, incorporates complexity that gives the ecosystem resilience. The work demonstrates, through its focus on South Africa's evidence ecosystem, that the global movement has much to learn from the South.
Africanus: Journal of Development Studies, 2018
Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development an... more Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development and USAID have recently started using systematic review as a methodology to assess the effectiveness of various development interventions to help them decide what is the ‘best’ intervention to spend money on. Such an approach to evidence-based decision-making has long been practiced in the health sector in the US, UK, and elsewhere but it is relatively new in the development field. In this article we use the case of a systematic review of the impact of microfinance on the poor in sub-Saharan African to indicate how systematic review as a methodology can be used to assess the impact of specific development interventions.
Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development an... more Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development and USAID have recently started using systematic review as a methodology to assess the effectiveness of various development interventions to help them decide what is the ‘best’ intervention to spend money on. Such an approach to evidence-based decision-making has long been practiced in the health sector in the US, UK, and elsewhere but it is relatively new in the development field. In this article we use the case of a systematic review of the impact of micro-finance on the poor in sub-Saharan African to indicate how systematic review as a methodology can be used to assess the impact of specific development interventions.
Environmental Evidence, 2014
Background Urban Agriculture is considered to contribute to improved food security among the inco... more Background Urban Agriculture is considered to contribute to improved food security among the income poor in urban contexts across developing countries. Much literature exists on the topic assuming a positive relationship. The aim of this review was to collect and analyse available evidence on the impact of urban agriculture in low and middle-income countries. Methods We employed systematic review methods to identify all relevant and reliable research on UA’s impact on food security and nutrition. Only impact evaluations that set out to measure the effectiveness of UA interventions on food security, as compared to the effects of not engaging in UA, qualified for inclusion. Studies had to have a comparison group and at least two data points. Results Systematic searches resulted in 8142 hits, and screening of abstracts resulted in 198 full texts identified. No studies met the review’s inclusion criteria. Therefore, the review found no available evidence that supports or refutes the sug...
Stewart, Ruth , Ellison, George , Wiggins, Meg , Thomas, James , Oliver, Sandy , Brunton, Ginny ,... more Stewart, Ruth , Ellison, George , Wiggins, Meg , Thomas, James , Oliver, Sandy , Brunton, Ginny , Erasmus, Yvonne , Van Rooyen, Carina and De Wet, Thea (2001) The HIVSA project report: capacity building for the evaluation of HIV/AIDS education. (Project Report) ...
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The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence is establishing centres worldwide to enhance evidenc... more The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence is establishing centres worldwide to enhance evidence-based decision-making on questions of importance in environmental sustainability. This has included the establishment in 2012 of a Centre at the University of Johannesburg. Our work draws heavily on a model for synthesizing research evidence for decision-making established in health care. This involves identifying and reviewing all the available research evidence relevant to a particular question, which is then critically appraised and summarized within systematic reviews. These reviews are routinely used worldwide to inform health care policy.
The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence is establishing centres worldwide to enhance evidenc... more The Collaboration for Environmental Evidence is establishing centres worldwide to enhance evidence-based decision-making on questions of importance in environmental sustainability. This has included the establishment in 2012 of a Centre at the University of Johannesburg. Our work draws heavily on a model for synthesizing research evidence for decision-making established in health care. This involves identifying and reviewing all the available research evidence relevant to a particular question, which is then critically ...
Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development an... more Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development and USAID have recently started using systematic review as a methodology to assess the effectiveness of various development interventions to help them decide what is the ‘best’ intervention to spend money on. Such an approach to evidence-based decision-making has long been practiced in the health sector in the US, UK, and elsewhere but it is relatively new in the development field. In this article we use the case of a systematic review of the impact of micro-finance on the poor in sub-Saharan African to indicate how systematic review as a methodology can be used to assess the impact of specific development interventions.
Journal of Agrarian Change, 2012
This paper is based on a systematic review of evidence of the impact of microfinance on the lives... more This paper is based on a systematic review of evidence of the impact of microfinance on the lives of poor women, men and children in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses specifically on longer-term non-financial outcomes related to health and nutrition and education. The paper contrasts microfinance's early days' initially refreshing and encouraging promises of a development initiative that empowers people to help themselves while 'paying for itself'with a more gloomy picture that derives from the synthesis results of our systematic review. It ...
World Development, 2012
Microfinance is seen as a key development tool, and despite the current deepening crisis within t... more Microfinance is seen as a key development tool, and despite the current deepening crisis within the industry, it continues to grow in sub-Saharan Africa. We systematically reviewed the evidence of the impacts of micro-credit and micro-savings on poor people in sub-Saharan Africa. We considered impacts on income, savings, expenditure, and the accumulation of assets, as well as non-financial outcomes including health, nutrition, food security, education, child labor, women's empowerment, housing, job creation, and social cohesion. The available evidence shows that microfinance does harm, as well as good, to the livelihoods of the poor.
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Papers by Carina van Rooyen