Putting evidence to work: Linking policy and practice in occupational health and safety capacity development

The challenges of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) capacity development vary markedly across organizations and sectors. One of the major challenges facing the OHS community is creating a capacity development architecture built on solid evidence. To make it easier to capture cross-sectoral issues and opportunities, and to learn lessons across operations, OHS practitioners and leaders must shift the focus from project-based short-term technical fixes to programmatic approaches that go beyond building organizations and individual skills to strengthening institutions. For OHS capacity development to have sustainable results, strengthening stakeholder ownership, the efficiency of policy instruments, and the effectiveness of organizational engagement is critical. In this presentation, the author will argue that, although a significant body of evidence on OHS capacity development is being produced, the knowledge is poorly captured and managed. As a result, OHS capacity development practice and tools fail to take full advantage of lessons and experiences that could lead to better results. Addressing these challenges will lead to improved outcomes of OHS capacity development initiatives. The presentation will underscore the importance of treating OHS capacity development in organizations as a core objective and ensuring that functional support is operation-owned, results oriented, and evidence-based. The presentation will illustrate why organizations, at the corporate level, should strengthen their knowledge base and amplify their OHS capacity development framework to help operations a) prioritize capacity development activities; b) link institutional, organizational, and human capacity developments; and c) transform traditional capacity building tools to improve results.