RAPID Events - IFSP Forum, Argentina

Summary Report on the CSPP Workshop at the International Forum on the Social Science - Policy Nexus
20-24 February 2006, Argentina

The International Forum on the Social Science - Policy Nexus was held on 20th - 24th February 2006 in Buenos Aires, Argentina with the objective of connecting social science research to policy. Organised under the aegis of UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST), in conjunction with the Governments of Argentina and Uruguay, the municipalities and universities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Montevideo and Rosario, and with the support of a wide range of academic, policy, and NGO partners, the Forum offered an innovative space for a new kind of dialogue, bringing together social science and policy in the search for a common language and shared terms of engagement. CSPP was represented at the Forum by Enrique Mendizabal, John Young and Naved Chowdhury.

The goal of UNESCO's MOST Programme is to bridge the gap between social science and policy, by making policy concerns meaningful in social science terms and the knowledge produced by social science meaningful in policy terms. This calls for new forms of partnership and innovative spaces to make them possible.

'My main wish is for the Forum to gather the best of positive experiences with regard to the link between policies and the social sciences, and I hope there will be specific commitments to help strengthen this link for the good of society', stated Daniel Filmus, sociologist and Argentine Minister of Education, Science and Technology. That hope was shared by Jorge Brovetto, Education and Culture Minister of Uruguay, who saw in this Forum an opportunity to 'move nearer the ideal of an America without borders and a world without destructive antagonisms, by projecting other forms of globalisation based on a rapprochement of peoples and the diversity of cultures'. This was echoed by Anis Ahmad Dani, Social Policy Adviser of the World Bank, who said 'Dialogue between social scientists and policymakers is essential to sustainable development. The link between research and policymaking in developing countries is particularly weak and, to the extent that it exists, is based largely on economic prescriptions extrapolated from global knowledge. There is an urgent need for high quality social research, relevant to development challenges within developing countries. However, for that research to affect policy, the dialogue needs to include other stakeholders, donor agencies, the private sector, and civil society organisations, who influence policy making.'

As many as 100 workshops were organised which emphasised analysis of successes and failures in the use of social science knowledge for policy, in areas such as poverty eradication, social integration, health, social insurance, housing, employment and education, among others. Better understanding of what works and what fails was the basis of the discussions and efforts were made to identify methodologies to enhance capacities for action to address the most urgent policy constraints in relation to various issues affecting the poor.

The half day workshop by ODI's Civil Society Partnership Programme (CSPP) was part of the events arranged under the cluster of 'Social Policies' to share its work on issues around bridging research to policy. While policies are made to promote public health, target social benefits, address entrenched poverty and adapt institutions to the implications of new modes of education and knowledge, such intervention requires detailed knowledge of social situations and the ability to predict their responses, as well as bridges between the inevitably different agendas, languages, timeframes and interests, of social scientists as well as policy actors. The specific objective of workshop was therefore to throw light on the challenges faced by civil society actors in ensuring policies are based on evidence and what strategies can be adopted by them in order to link their research to the overall policy agenda. The overall goal was to understand how these differences can be bridged so that social policy can be better informed by social science.

The presentation was well received by the researchers present and stimulated an interesting and exciting discussion. The main points in the discussion can be summarised as:

While there is doubt about the capacity of researchers to inform polices and the moral need of doing so, there is also a huge issue about the commitment of policymakers to utilise research while formulating policies. Given the assumption that policymakers were driven by self-interest it is difficult to argue for research addressed to policymakers.
A frequent concern of policymakers is the gap between their own needs and the production of knowledge in research institutions. This is the gap researchers need to address by preparing and presenting the outputs according to the needs of the intended audience.
While policymakers complain that that research results take too long to reach them, it is true that there is sometimes too much of a lag between the production and utilisation of knowledge. However, while the time lag can be reduced, it cannot be entirely removed, given the nature of research and its cumbersome but essential protocols of validation. New knowledge must undergo complex processes of academic and scientific validation before it can be implemented.
If we want to understand how far-ranging social policy reforms are implemented and sustained, then we do have to look at the political power distribution. If we look to Latin America, for instance, we find that some political parties tend to be more pragmatic and committed to alleviating poverty and inequality than others. For instance, it is no accident that such parties have been strong in Costa Rica and Uruguay and that these two countries have the egalitarian social policy regimes in Latin America. We need to understand better how such a political agenda can be formed and consolidated. Strength of civil society as a social actors can be hugely influential in this regard.

Links, background information and further details on Forum and workshop: