RAPID Programme Meetings, Seminars and Workshops

Meetings, Seminars and Workshops are an important part of RAPID's communication work. Click on the links below for more information about particular recent and forthcoming events.

Forthcoming events

International Forum on the Social Science-Policy Nexus RAPID, in conjunction with CIPPEC, Argentina, will be holding a half day workshop on bridging research and policy at the four-day forum being held in February 2006 in Argentina and Uruguay by UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations Programme. The forum will break new ground in connecting social science research to policy and is an opportunity for ODI to strengthen links to regional institutions and practitioners as well as to share its work and efforts to inform and inspire pro-poor policy processes around the world.

Recent events

DFID-Trocaire-ODI Workshop for Policy Entrepreneurs This DFID-Trocaire-ODI workshop for Policy Entrepreneurs was held in Nairobi, Kenya in October and November 2005 and focused on how CSOs can use evidence to promote pro-poor policies. The workshop was designed for staff of DFID and Trocaire partners in Kenya who wanted to know more about how to influence policy and provided a forum for participants to discuss the opportunities and challenges for CSOs to inform policy; learn about the latest worldwide research and practice in this area; share experiences about ongoing activities and what works; and identify gaps for future work.

Impact and Insight: The Policy, Research and Practice Interface This workshop series brings together researchers, practitioners and policy makers who have been studying these issues in both developed and developing countries to explore the interactions between research and policy across a range of fields and policy issues. The meetings cover a number of different fields, aim to identify common lessons and approaches to strengthen evidence-based policy, and build a community of practice in this area, centred upon, but not limited to the UK. First meeting in the series was held on 17th October 2005.

Civil Society Organizations: Promoting Pro-Poor Policy and Social Inclusion - CEU SUN, Budapest July 2005 This one week course aimed to help CSOs make their engagement with policy processes and policy actors more effective and legitimate by cultivating improved understanding of policy entrepreneurship and policy making at local, national and international levels. The central objective was to improve the quality, and utilization, of policy research produced by experts in CSOs to help ensure that their analysis is provided to policymakers at the time important issues are under deliberation.

CSOs, Evidence and Policy Workshop with Mexican and Central American Researchers, June 2005 A one-day workshop on the roles of CSOs, evidence and policy was held with a group of Mexican and Central American researchers in June 2005. The workshop was designed to allow participants to present case studies, discuss their own experiences in trying to influence policy as well as to learn new strategies or techniques that might be useful to them.

Knowledge and Information Management for NGOs A one-day training workshop held on 9th June 2005 for BOND member organiations, aimed at providing tools and techniques to use knowledge management tools in ongoing work programmes. The workshop was geared around the information management end of the KM spectrum and was a mixture of practical tools and presentations.

G8, UK Aid Policies and Implications for Japan - ODI Japan Visit Report A team of four from ODI visited Tokyo during the week of June 6 2005 as part of the JICA-funded work on UK-Japan aid issues and the implications for Japan of the UK's focus on African development in 2005. The trip was also an opportunity to learn about Japan's development community, particularly its views about East Asia's development experience and how Japan's aid may have accelerated it.

The Research / Practice Interface for 2005: Actions for the Year and Beyond, A Stakeholder Conference from the DSA and BOND in association with NR International and ODI A one day conference held on 3rd June 2005 to explore the reality of the links between research and practice. It aimed to identify problems at the interface between the two and propose action points. It was an opportunity both to develop ideas and action points as well as to take part in strategic networking. RAPID held a workshop session on Turning Insight into Impact: Approaches and Tools.

Euforic Annual Meeting 2005, Information Strategies and Policy Influence, London On the threshold of the UK Presidency of the EU, the G8 and the MDG Summit, this one day seminar organised by EUFORIC and ODI, was held at the beginning of June 2005 to explore the importance and opportunities of networking and Internet information for development policy. What are the strategies to follow and mechanisms to use for being really effective in influencing development policy? Which information foraging strategies are used by politicians, researchers or lobbyist? What could the Internet information landscape look like in ten years from now and how could development organisations prepare themselves?

SMEPOL Evidence-based Policy Making Workshop, Egypt This three day workshop for the SMEPOL Project was held to expose project stakeholders to current theory and practice of evidence-based policy making. The objectives were to: re-enforce the need for evidence-based policy reform decision making; introduce some of the latest theories about evidence-based policy making; outline some of the best international approaches and practice to ensure sustainable evidence-based policy making; provide practical tools; and help staff to develop strategies to influence policy in the SME sector in Egypt.

Process and Partnership for Pro-Poor Policy Change Project Initiation Workshops, February 2005, Kenya Two project initiation workshops held to launch the project as a whole, and to assemble preliminary information for the SDP Case Study. The Methodology workshop aimed to familiarise SDP evaluation team members with the general approach and specific methods to be used. The Policy Impact Workshop was designed to collect information from project staff and other stakeholders about the evolution of policy and practice in the dairy sector in Kenya and the project itself, and to explore the influence of specific project activities.

GDN Annual Conference 2005 and Bridging Research and Policy Workshop, Senegal, January 2005 The second GDN Bridging Research and Policy Project Workshop was held on January 21-23rd in Dakar, Senegal immediately before the Sixth GDN Annual Global Development Conference. Julius Court and Enrique Mendizabal helped to facilitate the BRP workshop, and Julius stayed on afterwards for the Conference where he participated in two of the parallel sessions.

CSOs, Evidence and Policy Influence - Regional Workshop, Kenya This workshop, held with AFREPREN in Nairobi in December 2004, focused on how CSOs can use evidence to promote pro-poor policies. It was a forum for CSOs in Kenya to discuss the opportunities and challenges they face when they try to inform policy and share experiences about what works and doesn't work, learn about the latest worldwide research and practice in this area, and identify gaps for future work.

Development Studies Association Annual Conference 2004 - London The 2004 Annual Development Studies Association one day Conference, held in November in London, was on the theme of Bridging Research and Policy. There were workshops to focus discussion, plenary sessions featuring speakers with experience across the research and policy spectrum, as well as a knowledge fair of development research publishers and other organisations.

Promoting Evidence-based Development Policy Workshop - DSA Conference, London This workshop session, held at the DSA Conference, provided a synthesis of the latest research on evidence-based policy in developing countries; an analytical and practical framework; policy perspectives from DFID and the south; and the latest on effective research communication. The workshop was attended by around fifty participants of the DSA conference. Discussions focused on gathering experience from participants and what should we do to improve the impact of our work on development outcomes.

Bridging Research and Policy - EADN Workshop, Jakarta A one day workshop to publicise the GDN Bridging research and policy project among researchers associated with the GDN East Asia Network. It was held alongside a regional workshop for researchers involved in research projects on Political Transition and Development, and Labour Migration in the Asia Pacific Region. The workshop was held at the Centre of Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta on the 10th July 2004.

Policy Entrepreneurship Workshop - Moldova A one day workshop for the directors of senior staff of policy research centers in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The purpose was to improve participants' ability to analyze the context within which they work and develop strategies to improve the policy impact of their work. The workshop was hosted by the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) in Chisinau, Moldova on 17 June 2004.

CSOs, Evidence and Pro-poor policy - CIVICUS Workshop A morning workshop on how CSOs can use evidence to promote pro-poor policy and practice, held at the CIVICUS World Assembly, March 2004, Gaborone, Botswana. Active participation was the cornerstone of the approach in the workshop, with emphasis placed on participants' own knowledge and experience. The workshop enabled participants to discuss the opportunities and challenges for CSOs to inform policy; learn about relevant approaches in this area; and share experiences about ongoing activities and what works.

HIV/AIDS: Bridging Research and Policy A one-day project workshop in March 2004 for the Bridging the Gap between Research and Policy in Combating HIV/AIDS in Developing Countries project. The objectives of the workshop were to share experiences about research-policy interactions in the HIV/AIDS field; discuss the Context: Evidence: Links framework along with the preliminary findings of the project; discuss other HIV/AIDS-related work relevant to the project; and to develop a strategy for further work in this area.

Policy Entrepreneurs - UK A one-day workshop for UK-based donors, practitioners, advocates and researchers to share experiences and learn about evidence-based policy and practice in the UK and Developing Countries; try out some simple tools for policy analysis and action; learn about other tools and approaches which have been used elsewhere, and about where to access further information and resources; and develop a personal action-plan to improve the impact of your own work.

Bridging Research and Policy - Delhi A seminar and workshop for researchers, policy makers and practitioners involved in the FRP R8171 project to consider how to improve the policy impact of the project. The project is focused on the intersection between water, watershed and forestry policies in India and faces the challenge of generating and using evidence to overturn the prevalent narrative that planting trees is enough to protect water resources.

Bridging Research and Policy - Marrakesh A one-day workshop on how to improve policy impact for researchers attending the ERF 10th Annual Conference in Marrakesh in December 2003. The workshop provided an opportunity for researchers to discuss research-policy links in the Northern Africa and Middle East Region, learn about the emerging findings from GDN and ODI work so far, and consider how they might be improved.

Bridging Research and Policy Project Seminar (October 2003) ODI’s Bridging Research and Policy project has been researching how research-based evidence contributes to policy processes in developing countries. The project included a literature review, the development of a new framework for analyzing and strengthening research-policy links and four in-depth case studies. This seminar provided an opportunity to learn about and discuss the results.

Meeting Series: Does Evidence Matter (Spring 2003) This lunch-time meeting series provided an opportunity for researchers, policy makers and intermediaries in the UK to discuss how and why evidence informs policy. Speakers included politicians, bureaucrats, researchers, NGO activists and practitioners from UK government and non-government organisations. They talked about how the political and institutional context influences development policy makers, what sort of evidence they want and need, how research institutes can manage and use their knowledge more effectively, how NGO campaigns and Think Tanks achieve policy influence, and what makes a good policy entrepreneur.