Since 2006 , RAPID and the Civil Society Partnership Programme have embarked on a research-action process to understand the challenges the CSOs in developing countries face to influence pro-poor policy processes using research based evidence. The objective of this broader initiative is to develop, in consensus with our partners in developing countries, a strategy to support and promote a more systematic use of evidence in policymaking. This particular project has aimed to collect case studies of CSOs attempting to influence policy processes as a means of learning about the challenges that they face and the strategies they follow to overcome them. The lessons learned from these cases can provide excellent examples of the existing practical knowledge of policy influencing strategies held by development researchers and practitioners in developing countries. Hopefully, this study will help systematise these lessons offering CSOs practical recommendations for action.

• Summary of lessons from CSO case studies
• Case Study summaries - with links to full cases
• Draft of summary report - Good News from Troubled Contexts (pdf 342kb)
• Details of the call for case studies
• Case studies collected so far:
  • Can the poor influence policy? Lessons from the cashew nut revitalization campaign in Kenya coast, Elphas Ojiambo
  • The influence of Kenya Association of Manufacturers on Environmental Law and Energy and Environmental Policies in Kenya, Peter Orawo, Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM)
  • From "Detention and Repatriation" to "Salvation and administration": A Policy Change towards the urban vagrants and mendicants in China, Xufeng Zhu, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, China
  • Interventions of CSOs towards the First Youth Policy of Pakistan, Zahid Shahab, University for Peace, Costa Rica
    
  • Grassroots Organization Engaging Conservation Agency in Nepal: A case of indigenous fishing communities' struggle for right to fishing in South-Central Nepal, Anil Bhattarai
  • Local struggle towards grassroot democracy: A case of Terai dalit movement for right to community forestry in Eastern Nepal, Sudeep Jana, Nepal South Asia Centre (NESAC)
    
  • Introduction of Anticorruption Education in the Bulgarian Secondary Schools, Natalia Dimitrova, Coalition 2000
  • NGOs, the extractive industries and community development: the case of NGO Labor in Peru, James Loveday Laghi and Oswaldo Molina, CIUP
  • From local action to national water policies: the experience of elaboration of the water law in Costa Rica, Jorge Mora, ICE, Costa Rica
  • From educational intensive care towards an educational city - the case of Araçuaí (Minas Gerais State, Brazil), Monica Barroso
  • Contending paradigms for contested public spaces: role of CSOs in shaping Delhi's transport policy, Mahesh Sarma, Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University
    
  • Advocating for pro-poor land laws: Uganda Land Alliance and the land reform process in Uganda, Emmanuel Nkurunziza, Department of Surveying, Faculty of Technology, Makerere University
    
  • Domestic Violence in Uzbekistan: An Innovative Approach to Decrease Violence against Women, Suckhobjon Ismoilov
  • A Policy for the Management of National Parks and Protected Areas in Jamaica, Michelle Harris
  • Changing anti-crime policy through community policing in Albania, Ermal Hasimja, Institute for Democracy and Mediation
  • The Power of Knowledge: CSOs and Environmental Policy Making in South Africa, Anne Roemer-Mahler
  • Kasambahay (domestic worker) program: working together towards a Magna Carta for Filipino domestic workers, Richard G. Valenzuela
  • The World Commission on Dams: shaping global policy through multi-stakeholder dialogue and evidence-based research, Fabien Lefrançois

For further information or if you have any comments on the summary report, please contact: Enrique Mendizabal