In line with increasing trend of changes and developments in all areas of today's societies and significant advances in science and technology, the need for planning on the implementation of evidence and statistics -based quality, of course, cost-effective programs and activities has increased.
Therefore, it is indispensable to have sufficient reliable evidences, data and statistics based on which the required management and planning can be implemented in an accurate and documented manner. With respect to this issue and taking into account the increasing pressure applied to various organizations and agencies, especially to public or state agencies for enhancement of efficiency and improvement of higher accountability and responsibility status in providing services, the evidence-based planning and management is one of the ways which was introduced to meet this need, and in recent years its concepts and applications have been developed.
Considering the importance of this issue and its deployment in the official statistics literature over recent years, the Statistical Research and Training Centre and UNFPA have taken a series of joint measures on studying and developing this management approach since 2012. In this regard, in order to make experts and managers understand the subject literature, a pocketbook entitled "A brief overview of the principles and concepts of evidence-based management" has been prepared and provided to the interested people. This book, while briefly reviewing the history and the way of the evidence-based management, tries to make us get familiar with the general concepts, principles and basics of this approach. The aspects and requirements for evidence-based planning or management are other issues that are addressed in this book. Moreover, although the evidence-based management has advantages and is cited in this collection, its use in activities faces challenges and barriers and its implementation in organizations has confronted limitations. Hence, those who are interested in implementing evidence-based decision-making and management approach should be well acquainted with these challenges and limitations before using this method. In the context of the evidence-based management, apart from , for which organization we are going to make decision, we are committed to employ the best evidences available for decision making. To do this, we need to learn how to collect and document evidences, how to distinguish scientific materials from folk beliefs, actual data from unfounded but established claims, personal or collective beliefs, and mental patterns. Therefore, this book also addresses some issues related to classifying evidences and making optimum decision based on them.