Turning Insight into Impact : Approaches and Tools

Often it seems that researchers, practitioners and policymakers live in parallel universes. Researchers cannot understand why there is resistance to policy change despite clear and convincing evidence. Policymakers bemoan the inability of many researchers to make their findings accessible and digestible in time for policy decisions. Practitioners often just get on with things. Yet better utilisation of research and evidence in development policy and practice can help save lives, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life. For example, the results of household disease surveys in rural Tanzania informed a process of health service reforms which contributed to over 40% reductions in infant mortality between 2000 and 2003 in two districts.

ODI has been looking at research-policy linkages in international development for over five years. We have completed extensive literature reviews – drawing on various streams of literature such as economics, political science, management, anthropology, social psychology, marketing communication, and media studies. We have also collected and analysed a large number of case studies on the topic of Bridging Research and Policy, and more recently have been involved in advisory work and workshops, seminars and training courses for researchers and policy makers in the UK and developing countries. Based on this work, ODI has developed an analytical and practical framework to help researchers and practitioners understand the context they are working in and develop strategies to maximise the impact of their work on policy and practice.

This workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to learn about and try out some of these approaches on their own work and on teaching case studies.

Programme
§ Introductions
§ The RAPID Analytical Framework
§ Group Work - Using the Framework (A Teaching Case Study)
§ Feedback & Discussion
§ The Policy Entrepreneur Questionnaire
Lunch
§ The practical framework
§ Feedback of Policy Entrepreneur Questionnaire
§ An introduction to some practical tools
§ Group Work – Trying out the Tools
§ Feedback & Discussion
§ Sources of further information

Background Reading
§ Bridging Research and Policy in International Development: An Analytical and Practical Framework. RAPID Briefing Paper 1, 2005 http://www.odi.org.uk/RAPID/Publications/RAPID_BP_1.html
§ Tools for Policy Impact: A Handbook for Researchers, Daniel Start and Ingie Hovland, ODI Working Paper 144, October 2004 http://www.odi.org.uk/RAPID/Publications/Tools_handbook.html
§ Practice-Research Engagement and Civil Society in a globalising world, Edited by L. David Brown, The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard University. (http://www.civicus.org/main/media/D87D671E-CDE9-11D5-857B0002A56B5CBF.pdf 1.9MB)

John Young, Director of Partnerships and Communications, joined ODI in May 2001 after 5 years in Indonesia managing the DFID Decentralised Livestock Services in the Eastern Regions of Indonesia (DELIVERI) Project – an action-research project to promote more decentralised and client-oriented livestock services. Before that he was ITDG’s Country Director in Kenya, responsible for managing the group’s practical project and research work on a wide range of technologies to ensure that lessons were effectively communicated to government and non-government policy makers. Since joining ODI he has been involved in projects on decentralisation and rural services, information and information systems, and strengthening southern research capacity

Julius Court, Research Fellow in RAPID at ODI, is currently involved in research, advisory work and training on issues of bridging research and policy; civil society and policy influence; and governance and development. He formerly worked as a researcher and in the Executive Office of the Rector at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan. He has done advisory and consultancy work for DFID, DANIDA, SDC, UNDP, WHO and the Global Development Network and he is currently on the Council of the UK Development Studies Association. Recent books and reports include: Bridging Research and Policy in International Development: Evidence and the Change Process (2005); Making Sense of Governance: Empirical Evidence from 16 Developing Countries (2004. He was a contributor to the UNDP Human Development Report 2002 on Strengthening Democracy in a Fragmented World.