ABSTRACT
It may seem commonsense to emphasize the importance of learning from experience in order to improve future policy responses and institutional capacities. Surely this is normal practice? Ideally, as policies are implemented, routines for capturing the necessary data are put in place, the effectiveness of policy interventions are monitored, and formal evaluations feed into the redesign of polices. However, in the emergencies area and elsewhere in public policy, careful harvesting of insights from past and current experience and purposeful application of the knowledge thus gained to adapt and improve capacities are too often not evident. This chapter identifies key issues that, if addressed, will enable policy learning and improvement, allowing for the design and maintenance of adaptive policy processes and institutional settings. It goes beyond the more familiar and well-documented practice of monitoring and evaluation, considering the nature of policy learning, conducive institutional characteristics, basic forms of information and their routine capture, and the development of human capacities.
