How do development assistance partners conceptualise and prioritise evidence in Priority Setting (PS) for health programmes relevant to low income countries? A qualitative study

There is limited literature on how donors conceptualise and prioritise evidence in healthcare priority setting (PS) affecting low income countries (LICs). We interviewed 35 donors and reviewed their websites to describe how they conceptualise, prioritise and perceive the role evidence plays in their organisation’s healthcare prioritisation affecting LICs. There was a correlation between the respondents’ organisation and how they conceptualised and credited the different types of evidence, as well as whether they talked about using evidence symbolically or instrumentally. Related challenges are discussed. This was an exploratory study; future research could focus on donors’ actual use of different types of evidence.