Making a Difference to Policies and Programs: A Guide for Researchers

This guide to researchers presents a practical and collaborative approach to the three-way communication between researchers, policy-makers and communities. It suggests specific actions that researchers may take to communicate more effectively at different stages of the research process (defining the questions, developing the proposal, conducting the study, communicating the results). Suggestions include: involve potential users in defining the questions, establish relationships of trust, clarify which decisions the research wants to influence, choose appropriate research methods, involve users in data collection and analysis, communicate the results in appropriate ways to the different groups involved, formulate clear recommendations.