Policy Research

Evidence Into Policy: Research Coverage and Evidence Limits

This review considers how research can inform policy through commissioning, parliamentary scrutiny, regulatory assessment and access to statistics. The available profiles and indicators do not establish which of these channels is a binding constraint on policy decisions.

Selected institutional coverage

BDPolicyLab's Government Watch, NGO Watch, University Watch and Industry Association Watch contain selected institutional profiles, source links and verification dates. Examples include the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development.

These directories have different scopes and do not constitute a comprehensive inventory of Bangladesh's think tanks or policy-research firms. No national count or institutional ranking is reported here. Inclusion, institutional type and recorded public activity do not establish research quality, independence or influence on policy.

Research investment and education

• R&D expenditure: unavailable in the selected source.
• Researchers: unavailable in the selected source.
• Education expenditure: 2.03 % of GDP (2024; World Bank WDI).
• Tertiary enrollment: 23.73 % gross enrollment (2024; World Bank WDI).
• GDP growth: 3.49 annual % (2025; World Bank WDI).

Each year identifies the observation period, not a publication date. Missing observations remain unavailable. Gross tertiary enrollment counts enrolled students of any age relative to the population of the official age group. Education spending is not a measure of research expenditure.

Governance indicators

• Government effectiveness: -0.62 WGI estimate (2024; World Bank WGI).
• Regulatory quality: -0.95 WGI estimate (2024; World Bank WGI).
• Rule of law: -0.96 WGI estimate (2024; World Bank WGI).

These are governance estimates, not percentile ranks or the separate absolute 0 to 100 scores. The selected World Bank WGI series use the revised methodology and recalculated history described in the official WGI documentation. These country-level indicators do not measure the quality or independence of individual research organizations or explain why a policy adopted particular evidence.

Questions for institutional review

• Which policy decisions publish the evidence considered and the reasons for the decision?
• How are research commissions selected, reviewed and disclosed?
• What research support is available to parliamentary committees, and under what mandate?
• Which regulations require impact assessment, consultation or subsequent evaluation?
• What are the coverage, release schedules and access conditions of relevant statistics?

Answering these questions requires current mandates, procedures, procurement records, research outputs and policy documents. The selected profiles do not establish that a service, legal requirement or research capability is absent.

Policy options to assess

Publish evidence and decision rationales where feasible; make commissioning and review criteria explicit; and improve access to research briefs and statistical releases. Assess existing services before proposing new bodies or funding streams. Costs, authority, implementation arrangements and effects require separate review.

Access to information

• Applications reported: 8,747 applications (2023; Information Commission, Annual Report 2023, p. 58).
• Information provided: 7,950 applications (2023; Information Commission, Annual Report 2023, p. 58).
• Information not provided: 771 applications (2023; Information Commission, Annual Report 2023, p. 58).
• Pending at year end: 26 applications (2023; Information Commission, Annual Report 2023, p. 58).
• Share supplied: 90.89 % of reported applications (2023; Information Commission, Annual Report 2023, p. 58).

The Information Commission compiled these calendar-year counts from authority reports. Applications are not unique applicants. The supplied share divides applications for which information was provided by applications reported; it does not measure timeliness, completeness or legal compliance. The archived English report's page 58 is verified. Its identified official download could not be freshly retrieved, so byte identity with that online file is unconfirmed.

Source and publication limits

The institutional links above describe selected coverage. Indicator links identify the source and each reading's observation year. National institutional counts, rankings, PhD output, RTI compliance and parliamentary committee counts are not established by these sources. This brief remains a draft pending institutional review and review of the remaining research-system measures.