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Bridging Research and Policy

9 October 2003 11:30-16:00 (GMT+00) - Workshop, London

  • This workshop aimed to develop practical approaches to promoting evidence-based policy.

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    Speakers:
    Dylan Winder - DFID
    Hilary Warburton - ITDG
    Saleemul Huq - IIED
    Diane Stone - University of Warwick

     

  • An ODI workshop in the Research and Policy in Development training series.

How can policy-makers best use research, and move towards evidence-based policy-making? How can researchers best use their findings in order to influence policy? How can the interaction between researchers and policy-makers be improved? ODI’s Bridging Research and Policy project has been exploring these questions over the last 18 months. This seminar provided an opportunity to learn more about this project, which included a literature review, the development of a new framework for analyzing and strengthening research-policy links and four in-depth case studies.

The New Framework suggests that research uptake is a function of the interaction of Context: Politics and Institutions; Evidence: Approach and Credibility; and Links between Researchers and Policymakers. The project used the framework to explore four recent policy events:

  • How did Poverty Reduction Strategies emerge from the international discourse about the Common Development Framework, and become the key financial planning instrument for the World Bank, the IMF and most bilateral donor programmes in 1999?
  • The Sphere Project is spearheading the move to strengthen the accountability of humanitarian agencies and to find ways of improving performance in humanitarian response. How did research, and in particular to Joint Rwanda Evaluation contribute to this policy initiative?
  • There has been a quiet revolution in Livestock Services in Northern Kenya over the last decade where veterinary services are now provided illegally by trained livestock keepers rather than veterinary staff. Why has convincing evidence of their effectiveness not lead to policy and legal reform?
  • How did research contribute to the development of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, its adoption as one of the key principles of the 1997 White Paper and its rapid institutionalisation within DFID over the subsequent few years?

This workshop was held for special advisors on putting research into practice. The presentation outlined RAPID's approach to strengthening policy entrepreneurship in the North and South. This was followed by a discussion by a panel of policy entrepreneurs from policy and research institutions, NGOs and Think Tanks, and then a general discussion amongst all participants. Groups were then formed to develop specific ideas for specific audiences.