Strengthening the Science-to-Policy Interface in the Western Indian Ocean Region

The document examines the challenges of integrating scientific evidence into policymaking for ocean governance, specifically within the Western Indian Ocean region. It highlights the role of the Nairobi Convention and WIOMSA in bridging these gaps and advocates for a shift from linear communication to interactive, dialogic networks. The brief emphasizes the importance of trust, the need for institutional reforms in researcher performance evaluation, and the adoption of strategies to increase the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of scientific information to support evidence-based decision-making.

• Researchers face several systemic challenges in ensuring policy uptake, including a mismatch between the multi-year lifecycle of grant-funded research and the shorter timeframes of policymakers, as well as a lack of mutual understanding regarding successful outcomes in the scientific process versus the policy cycle.
• To promote the uptake of science in policy, researchers should focus on 'managing the boundary' by improving the salience (relevance to decision-makers), credibility (authority of evidence), and legitimacy (perception of unbiased and fair production) of their information.
• The science-policy interface serves three primary functions: improving two-way communication to strengthen research-informed dialogues, enhancing the translation and framing of messages for stakeholder comprehension, and increasing mediation to resolve conflicts and trade-offs.
• Trust is essential for knowledge exchange and can be built through specific strategies, including maintaining transparency, avoiding advocacy for specific outcomes, establishing clear knowledge-development processes, ensuring regular face-to-face contact, and demonstrating independence.
• Conventional linear policymaking is insufficient for 'wicked problems' like environmental sustainability; instead, 'dialogic science–policy networks'—which involve long-term, multi-level interactions among scientists, stakeholders, and policymakers—can increase public participation and legitimacy.
• Current academic evaluation systems often overemphasize publication outputs over actual impact; therefore, research institutions should adjust performance criteria and monitoring systems to recognize researchers' efforts in promoting policy uptake.
• In the Western Indian Ocean region, the Nairobi Convention and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) facilitate science-based governance through mechanisms such as the Forum for Academic and Research Institutions and a Science–to–Policy Platform.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2021). Strengthening the Science-to-Policy Interface in the Western Indian Ocean Region. https://saiia.org.za/research/strengthening-the-science-to-policy-interface-in-the-western-indian-ocean-region/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Strengthening the Science-to-Policy Interface in the Western Indian Ocean Region. 2021. https://saiia.org.za/research/strengthening-the-science-to-policy-interface-in-the-western-indian-ocean-region/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Strengthening the Science-to-Policy Interface in the Western Indian Ocean Region |date=14 July 2021 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/strengthening-the-science-to-policy-interface-in-the-western-indian-ocean-region/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2021strengthening, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Strengthening the Science-to-Policy Interface in the Western Indian Ocean Region}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2021}, month = jul, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/strengthening-the-science-to-policy-interface-in-the-western-indian-ocean-region/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }