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Better utilization of evidence in development policy and
practice can help save lives, reduce poverty and improve the
quality of life. For example, the results of household disease
surveys in rural Tanzania informed a process of health service
reforms which contributed to a 28% reduction in infant mortality
in two years. On the other hand, the HIV/AIDS crisis has deepened
due to the reluctance of some governments to implement well-researched
and proven control programmes.
This one-day workshop (held in March and April) was designed
to provide an environment where UK-based people and organizations
involved in work to improve policy and practice to promote
pro-poor development, could learn how to improve the impact
of their work.
Fourteen people attended each workshop from NGOs, media organizations,
consultancy groups and universities. They discussed and analysed
their work using ODI's RAPID framework. The framework focuses
on the political context within which they work, the evidence
they have, and other actors, intermediaries and networks that
could help them to link with policy processes. They felt that
the framework helped to systematize and understand the complexity
of their work.
The framework can also be used to identify what needs to
be done to increase the impact of research-based and other
forms of evidence. Researchers and development practitioners
need a wide range of skills to be effective policy entrepreneurs.
The results of a policy entrepreneur questionnaire indicated
that most participants favoured "networking" and
"engineering" (ie doing things practically) over
"storytelling" and "fixing" (political
lobbying).
A wide range of tools to improve organizational capacity,
to ensure effective communication and for policy advocacy
were presented and discussed.
Overall, participants thought that using the framework and
some of the tools would help them to achieve greater policy
impact.
Click on the links below for further information:
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