Watch a 2 minute video clip on horror stories and what CSOs could do to increase their policy impact: MP4 (7.67mb) or WMV (1.3mb)

I work for Participatory Development Associates (PDA), which is a consulting company in Ghana. I am also involved in a number of networks, including the Forest Watch Ghana. PDA is also currently facilitating a network called Ghana Network for Participatory Development, which is looking at promoting participatory culture within Ghana and at areas local governance.

What is your experience of using research-based evidence to influence development policy?

Some years ago, between 1993-1995, the organisation I used to head, the Centre for the Development of People was involved in participatory poverty assessments. In fact, the Centre conducted the first participatory poverty assessment. It aimed to influence a number of government policies, particularly in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation. This was not as successful as we had expected. It was quite new and ground-breaking at the time, but we had anticipated government participation and this did not happen to the extent we had wanted, so that it was difficult to know how much of the information was taken on board. That was my first experience of engaging in a process of trying to use research to influence policy. It was funded by UNICEF and DFID for the World Bank.

Subsequently, both in my previous organisation and in this organisation, we have tried to get the people who are affected by an issue to gather the evidence and make their presentations. We are currently in the process of supporting (through a DFID-funded project) a group of people who use chainsaws to fell trees to be able to make a case against the ban on chainsaw use. The ban is not helping the forestry sector and we are helping them to make the case as to why the government needs to move towards a regulatory framework rather than an outright ban. This is one area which we are working on and it is an ongoing process.

What do you think are the most important tricks of the trade?

The most important trick, especially with politicians, is showing that there is a constituency behind you. If you do not have this, it is like trying simply to pit one opinion against another. The politicians and political parties have a particular ideology, so that if you want to make a political shift, there has to be evidence that there is a particular interest group which has a stake in changing the policy, or that the people who are affected by it are demanding a change. If you can also illustrate the impact of the policy on people then you are more likely to encourage a rethink or shift in policy. It is quite a long-term process and is not something which just happens overnight. You have to pursue it for a long time if you want to take the evidence you have gathered forwards into policy change. It is also important to be strategic in terms of the timing. For instance, in Ghana, once you enter the election year there is no way of getting any change to happen and, once you have a new government, they are busy reorganising their ministries and so on in the first year, so the second and third year are the critical years to push for change.

Do you have any 'good news case studies'?

We think that the chainsaw case study will be a good news one. At the moment we are just about to train the chainsaw users to use video to capture their story and articulate it with their own voice. I do not currently have a good news story which I can attribute to our own work. The only example I can think of, and I was not really a part of it, was the work of Forest Watch Ghana. They managed to use the evidence which was around from the Forestry Commission website and so on to get the public to begin look at the evidence. This created a huge debate because they were able to show that Ghana was losing more than the amount it received in HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Country) funds simply through the failure of the Forestry Commission to collect the revenues that they needed to collect from the timber companies. That was quite revealing and it made the Minister of Finance quite interested in what was happening. Forest Watch Ghana have been able to articulate this quite well on their website and this is one of the case studies that I think has been particularly interesting.

Do you have any 'horror stories'?

I would not say we have any horror stories. We had expected the work on the poverty study that I mentioned earlier to have more impact than it did, but even in this case, it still set the tone so that the government later decided to carry out poverty mapping. Actually getting from A to Z may be ten years down the line, but the work was innovative and needed time to sink in and be picked up by the policy-makers. For us to make an impact, we need to be focused and to target where the poverty issues and areas are. So for us this is less of a horror story than a disappointment.

What three things could CSOs do to increase their policy impact?

Firstly, there needs to be stronger networking amongst CSOs because different CSOs have different strengths. There are some which are good at engaging policy-makers and which know the mechanisms for doing that, there are those which are stronger on research, and there are those which are stronger at working with the people who are affected by, or have an interest in, particular issues. If there can be greater cooperation amongst these three types of CSOs, we can achieve more. For instance if think-tanks know how to link up with the teachers' unions on education policy and help them to be able to research or package what they want to say to government, they are more likely to be able to influence government. Teachers' unions have a large membership and they hold education together, but often these linkages are lacking and situations arise where the teachers' union makes a press statement saying things that have not necessarily been thoroughly researched or packaged. They think that one statement will make a difference but of course, in these situations, it does not. Creating these linkages is very important.

Secondly, making these linkages happen means creating long-term partnerships which are capable of being proactive - not waiting for government to come up with a policy that we then react to, but having our own alternatives available. This way, we have a better chance to articulate what we want to say and this can then feed into the thinking of the government.

What three things could policy-makers do to increase their use of research-based evidence?

In the situation that we have in Ghana, I think the onus is not so much on policy-makers as on those of us who are interested in influencing policy to create an environment which allows policy-makers greater exposure to the full range of opinion. Recently, I was asked to participate in a workshop at which a group of civil society organisations and the media were trying to come up with a broadcasting deal in Ghana. Since the time when the airwaves were liberalised, there has not really been any law to regulate it. There has been a process of civil engagement which has been able to get various members of parliament and some chief directors (who are the permanent civil servants) to meet with civil society actors. I think that this was the first time that policy-makers were hearing these opinions and hearing directly from people who were affected by the policy. The policy-makers could hear behind these voices passion and anger and emotion which does not often come across when you simply put a paper out to them. The more opportunities such as this, to provide a forum and an environment where policy-makers can be exposed to the voices of those most affected by an issue, the better. Sometimes it is not possible to do this and at such times the use of other media such as video becomes particularly important. A short video of maybe thirty minutes can have some impact. Nonetheless, it is still important to try to get policy-makers into a platform or forum where people can actually speak to them and it is this which makes a lasting impact and impression on them.

Back to Talking Heads CSPP interview list