| The Overseas Development Institute’s (ODI) Research
and Policy in Development (RAPID) group is undertaking a
long-term study on research policy networks and their roles
in linking research and policy. A literature review, a series
of background papers on the subject and the development of a
framework to better understand and work with research policy
networks have been completed. Evidence from these studies shows
that networks play a key role in bridging research and policy.
ODI’s networks research has as its main objective to
provide networks with the necessary knowledge to tackle internal
and external challenges better and improve their capacity
to use research-based evidence to influence policy processes
in their own contexts. It is not the objective of this paper,
or of the case studies, to provide an evaluation of the networks.
We make the assumption that networks are relevant and necessary
if they fulfil a function for which there is a demand (Mendizabal
2006). Hence, although we make some references to the network’s
successes in influencing policy in their respective sectors,
these are not intended as an evaluation of these efforts.
As such, we hope that the lessons from these four cases from
Cambodia will provide civil society there and elsewhere with
insights into how networks work and what can they do to work
better.
The four case studies listed below used the function-form
framework to describe four networks in Cambodia. The cases
show how these networks undertake various roles and functions
and how their own structural characteristics and the external
environment affect them. The cases have provided insights
into the activities undertaken under each function as well
as the key actors responsible for them.
Back to Networks Study index
|
