Health evidence meets politics: informing the development and evaluation of electoral platforms in Lebanon.

Background: Whilst significant efforts have been undertaken to strengthen the role of evidence in policymaking, there is still limited work aiming to strengthen the role of evidence in electoral platforms, which are provided to inform citizens' voting decisions in democratic systems. This study aims to develop a guide targeted at political parties and candidates to support them in developing and communicating electoral platforms that are action-oriented, evidence-based and responsive to people needs. It also aims to pilot test and apply an evaluation tool to understand how political platforms are developed in Lebanon, a sectarian-based country, including main gaps, areas for improvement and use of evidence.

Methods: To develop the guide, we searched electronic databases and websites to identify documents on the development and evaluation of electoral platforms. We also mapped a sample of existing electoral platforms from democratic countries. Building on the guide, we generated a standard evaluation tool - referred to as K2Platform tool - for scoring electoral platforms. The tool was first pilot tested and then used to evaluate electoral platforms of candidates running for the 2022 Lebanese Parliamentary elections.

Results: We included 25 relevant articles that informed the development of the guide and evaluation tool. The guide presents the main phases and criteria involved in planning, designing and communicating electoral platforms. The K2Platform evaluation tool incorporates a set of 12 criteria and was used to evaluate 20 electoral platforms. The evaluation identified shortcomings in the electoral platforms, mainly the limited use of evidence and the absence of timelines and measurable indicators.

Conclusions: The guide and K2Platform evaluation tool will make a breakthrough in how electoral platforms are designed to ensure they are transparent, action-oriented and responsive to people's needs. They provide essential criteria for political parties and other candidates to develop evidence-informed electoral platforms that can be translated into effective laws and policies. Our work supports evidence-informed policymaking and contributes to the science of knowledge translation by examining the use of evidence in informing electoral platforms.