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The Bolivia seminar and workshop of Civil
Society Partnerships Programme's (CSPP) Regional
Consultation in Latin American was held in La Paz, Bolivia
on 29th and 30th August, in collaboration with ILDIS
(Latin-American Institute of Social Research). ILDIS aims
to provide an open space for political, social and institutional
actors to reflect on the problems that challenge Bolivia with
the objective to generate relevant recommendations and support
the country's democratic process. It was facilitated by Carlos
Toranzo, of ILDIS. The objective of the sessions were to inform
participants about ODI's work on communicating research and
approaches to participating in public policy and to obtain
field information on the Bolivian experience.
This consultation in Bolivia was composed of three phases:
a half day seminar to discuss the current and potential role
of CSOs that use research to influence policymaking; a one
and a half day workshop with the participation of CSOs to
discuss and explore how research and evidence can be better
used for influencing public policies; and one to one interviews
with representatives of leaders from CSOs, governmental agencies
and international organisations.
The seminar was held on August 29th, in La Paz, in collaboration
with ILDIS and participants were 36 representatives from national
and international civil society organizations including policy
research institutes, academia, governmental agencies, and
international donors. Juan Ramón Quiroga presented
a case study on a long term research policy programme on military
conscription in Bolivia. He spoke about the different challenges
faced by researchers and the possible strategies to overcome
them. His presentation closely referred to the issues highlighted
by Enrique Mendizabal and Steve Wiggins of ODI, who discussed
the role of research based evidence in CSOs' initiatives to
influence policies. The discussion focused on what is already
being done in Bolivia and ways in which new approaches can
strengthen these initiatives.
The workshop was held after the seminar in the afternoon
and the following day and was attended by 25 participants
from diverse CSOs. The workshop objectives were to: (i) Generate
a critical debate on the opportunities and challenges faced
by Bolivian CSOs to influence public policies; (ii) Share
experiences on different activities and strategies in this
area; (iii) Strengthen CSOs impact on public policy influence
work by identifying key needs and gaps they have to overcome
to achieve their goals. The workshop began with a brief session
on ODI, followed by an introduction to RAPID's Context, Evidence
and Links Framework by Steve Wiggins and Enrique Mendizabal.
Carlos Toranzo facilitated the discussion.
A local case study was then presented to the workshop by
Noel Orozco from PIEB (Bolivian Strategic Research Programme).
PIEB is a programme that promotes policy oriented research
at the same time as it builds the capacity of young researchers
to manage research programmes and use their findings to influence
policies. His presentation mirrored that of ODI's and presented
a very 'Bolivian' approach to bridging research and policy.
The second day of the workshop involved two sessions of group
work. Firstly, groups of participants discussed a specific
case of influence on a public policy, identifying key success
factors, the challenges and opportunities that either helped
or hindered the implementation of the strategy and applied
the CEL framework to the case. Two cases where represented:
one on gender representation in parliament and the other on
environmental pollution. Both cases highlighted the intricate
multi-prong strategies undertaken by CSOs to achieve change.
A presentation was then given on tools useful for policy influence,
based on the Tools
for Policy Impact: A Handbook for Researchers (click for
details of publication), which was followed by the second
group work session where participants used the same case to
address two tools - Force Field Analysis and Stakeholder Analysis.
Finally, participants were invited to make suggestions about
how ODI might help them enhance their capacity to influence
public policies. Suggestions included:
- Increase the number of case studies relevant to Bolivian
researchers on how to influence government policies
- Technical assistance and advice on strategies to influence
policy
- Develop a local programme
- Provide access to local experiences of other countries
and access to external networks
- Connect NGOs with other NGOs that work in the same field
in the world in other regions
- Spread the RAPID approach by developing capacities
- Train researchers on the RAPID approach, research and
policy formulation
- Generate periodic meetings among CSOs to share knowledge
and information
- Support the systematization of experiences
Further details on group work and comments, suggestions and
feedback during the discussion sessions are available in the
seminar and workshop report.
- Full Seminar report:
- Programme (with links to powerpoint
presentation slideshows)
- Participants list
(pdf 17kb)
- Background information materials provided to participants:
For more on ODI's work in Latin America, see the Latin
America and Caribbean Group website.
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