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(May 2016) With support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Population and Poverty (PopPov) Research Initiative, researchers have sought to contribute policy-relevant information about the links between population dynamics and poverty at the national and household level. Their findings are highly relevant to policy decision-making and priority setting, especially in light of the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals, which target (among other things) universal access to health care and economic inclusion. But the findings are useful only if the right regional and country-level policymakers have access to and understand relevant results.

This policy brief summarizes policymakers’ perspectives on what constitutes barriers to evidence-informed policymaking. It also presents strategies for making research results more accessible to high-level policymakers at the country level, based on what they say they want as well as evidence about what information policymakers can and do use in policymaking. Finally, the brief includes examples of how PopPov-supported researchers addressed policy-relevant questions and applied some of the outreach strategies that policymakers suggest.