Without evidence, the effort to improve government is flying blind. Over the course of the Biden-Harris Administration, the Office of Management and Budget’s Evidence Team executed the first-of-its-kind President’s Management Agenda (PMA) Learning Agenda. The PMA Learning Agenda was designed to raise critical management learning gaps and to encourage research within, beyond, and in partnership with the Federal Government – the goal of which is the ambitious task of addressing evidence gaps to solve big problems. Its intention, like all learning agendas, was to be a living document that would adjust in light of new and emerging evidence and priorities.
The PMA Learning Agenda was developed in alignment with the priorities articulated in the PMA and presented the following overarching questions:
- How can the Federal Government strengthen and empower its workforce, so it can best serve the American people?
- How can the Federal Government deliver programs and services effectively and build trust?
- How can the Federal Government advance equity and support underserved communities?
Top Achievements
The PMA Learning Agenda contributed to the evidence community in many ways. For more details please read the PMA Learning Agenda Year End Report.
- Convened: Hosted roundtables on the PMA with public management researchers, academics, and thought leaders, and connected leaders at a Workforce Symposium, which shared examples of evidence-informed approaches to federal workforce topics.
- Built the Evidence Base: Developed new strategies to promote consistent evidence-based decision-making, and increased connection and collaboration among researchers, knowledge producers, and decision makers.
- Leveraged Innovative Resources: Hosted a Public Participation and Community Engagement (PPCE) Evidence Challenge, which developed a toolkit that provides guidance on how to incorporate equity into every step of designing a PPCE evaluation.
The work of the PMA Learning Agenda also reinforces the efforts of agencies across the Federal Government, who have actively worked to develop and expand their own evidence bases. To that end, we have developed a Learning Agenda Questions Dashboard, where individuals can filter by questions including the PMA.
For more information about what agencies are evaluating, check out agencies’ own Learning Agendas and Annual Evaluation Plans, which can be found on the Evidence Plans page of Evaluation.gov.
Passing the Torch
The quest for knowledge never ends - while this PMA Learning Agenda will be formally coming to a close, the need for creative partnership and collaboration both within and outside of government remains.
Only by redoubling our commitment to make evidence-informed decisions and ensuring a deep partnership with the research community, experts, and a broad range of stakeholders can we solve the most challenging management-related questions across government.
Continue to check out Evaluation.gov for the latest information or follow Evaluation.gov on LinkedIn. Email the team at evidence@omb.eop.gov for any questions, comments, feedback, or research.
