Previous authors in this series have made a strong case for using evidence-based approaches to strengthen human rights interventions. Indeed, in other sectors where an evidence-based approach has been implemented, researchers have found that it more fully empowers professionals in the field and provides a “bounce” in their effectiveness. The question, then, is not whether evidence-based approaches can support human rights efforts. Rather, it is how to implement systems effectively for evidence-based practice across an organization.
Many of the key best practices in this field—such as having a steering committee composed of experts and stakeholders that provide widespread training and create an effective repository of evidence—come primarily from Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). EBM has been widely adopted internationally in the medical field, including the World Health Organization, because it promotes optimal clinical outcomes and improved quality of life for patients. However, like evidence-based strategies in human rights, EBM was not always so widely accepted. According to the pioneers of EBM, doctors, nurses and other health professionals initially resisted the approach. Some worried that it would be too hard to implement. Others were concerned with the danger of turning their work into “cookbook” medicine. These apprehensions, along with loss of autonomy and suspicion that “snapshots” could lead to faulty comparisons, sound very similar to the concerns human right workers have expressed about evidence-based practice. Over time, the concerns of the medical community have been answered through effective implementation of systems that rely on EBM as a supplement and amplifier, never a substitute, for expertise.
Fortunately for human rights practitioners, evidence-based practice is not new. We can learn much from successful implementation in other fields, which include medicine, business management, teaching, criminal justice and political policy making, to name just a few examples.
