RAPID Meetings - Does Evidence Matter? Meeting Series

Better utilization of research and evidence in development policy and practice can have a dramatic impact. For example, household disease surveys in rural Tanzania informed 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 in some countries as governments fail to implement effective prevention and mitigation programmes despite clear evidence how to prevent it spreading. Although evidence clearly matters, there is no systematic understanding of when, how and why evidence informs policy.

This lunch-time meeting series organised by ODI's Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) programme provided an opportunity for researchers, policy makers and intermediaries in the UK to discuss how and why evidence informs policy. Speakers included politicians, bureaucrats, researchers, NGO activists and practitioners from UK government and non-government organisations. They talked about how the political and institutional context influences development policy makers, what sort of evidence they want and need, how research institutes can manage and use their knowledge more effectively, how NGO campaigns and Think Tanks achieve policy influence, and what makes a good policy entrepreneur. Click on the links below for more information about the meeting series, or on the links in the grey manu bar at the top of the page for more information about the RAPID programme.

Does Evidence Matter? Why is evidence important in policy making? What sort of evidence? How do you get it? Is the current emphasis on evidence-based policy in government resulting in better policies? Speakers: David Halpern; Erik Millstone Chair: John Young	Think Tanks What role do they play in policy processes? Are they a force for good? Can they be independent? What is the ideal balance between research and communication? How important is reputation? Speakers: Tom Bentley; Simon Maxwell; Mark Garnett Chair: Larry Elliott
The Political Context Are policy makers ‘evidence aware’? What sort of evidence gets to them? What other factors influence their decision-making? What room for manoeuvre do they have? Speakers: Vincent Cable; Julius Court Chair: John Young	Putting Knowledge into Practice Do organisations learn? What incentives do people need to learn? How to convert information into knowledge. How to manage knowledge in international networks. Who buys knowledge? The power of networks. Speakers: Bonnie Cheuk; John Borton Chair: John Young
The Role of Research What does DFID want from research? Do they get it? How could research have more impact on policy? How can you measure research impact? What is its relative importance in recent development policy shifts? Speakers: Paul Spray; John Young Chair: Diane Stone	Policy Entrepreneurship What makes an effective policy entrepreneur? Is it art or science? Spotting policy windows. Speakers: Simon Maxwell; Ann Pettifor Chair: Baroness Margaret Jay
NGO Campaigns What role do they play in policy processes? Are they evidence based? Are they really effective? How? How do they communicate? How to build coalitions. Speakers: Andrew Simms; Justin Forsyth Chair: Simon Maxwell	International Policies What is unique about international and trans-national policy processes? The balance between local and international voice and capacity. How can research contribute? Speakers: Alex Wilks; Lord Desai Chair: John Young

An index of all the meetings, with links to all of the talks, video clips, transcripts and presentations.
Short biographies of speakers and chairs.
A short article based on the meeting series, syndicated to southern media by PANOS.
Or Email Fiona Drysdale (f.drysdale@odi.org.uk) to get it all on a CD with video clips (and everything else that's on the RAPID web site).
Printed publication of this meeting series is now available - click here to view publication pdf online (pdf 894kb)