1. Collaboration with Darwin and with FFSSA civil society partners on food security in Southern Africa.
In response to the 2001-03 food crisis in Southern Africa, ODI has been coordinating a Forum for Food Security in Southern Africa to provide a platform for 500 stakeholders from government, civil society, international agencies, the private sector and research organisations in the region to discuss how more effective policies can be put in place for addressing chronic food security in Southern Africa. One of the conclusions from The Forum is that policy processes in Southern Africa have suffered to date from lack of effective participation by potential sponsors of change, and in particular by organisations that represent the voices of vulnerable rural and urban people.

This proposal is based on the Forum for Food Security, CISANET and Harvest Help partnership. The work will meet the two objectives of CISANET and Harvest Help capitalising on the research funded by the Forum for Food Security to promote better food security policies in Malawi and Zambia; and the Forum for Food Security and ODI's Partnership Programme to understand more about how CSOs use research to promote policy.

Outputs from the work will be a communications strategy, and the skills to develop further communications strategies in the future; a range of materials useful for civil society in Malawi and Zambia in working to influence food security policy processes more effectively, and the skills to develop further materials in the future; learning, captured in the After Action Review, about how research can be more effectively used to promote better policies for food security in Southern Africa.

2. Collaboration with the Centre for People's Forestry in India to help them to improve dialogue between government and poor managers of forest resources.
The objective of this collaborative project is to enable the Centre for People's Forestry (CPF) in India to better utilise its research based evidence in its policy reform activities and also to help it to exchange experiences and work with other CSOs in the field. ODI's role would be to assist them in this process by providing them with support on how the understanding of forest policy is evolving internationally and where and how they could make a meaningful contribution.

Priya Deshingkar will work closely with CPF to identify those aspects of its overall institutional approach which are innovative and have had discernible policy impact. She will also help CPF to better articulate its achievements and locate this within the wider debate on forest policy. CPF will also be assisted in building its own capacity to communicate and learn effectively from other CSOs in India and elsewhere. In addition Priya will provide inputs on preparing the policy brief and film script. She will help CPF to organise the workshop by identifying participants, issues to be addressed and the structure of the report.

Outputs will include a policy brief on how CPF has added to our understanding of NTFP based livelihoods and influenced policy; a short film; and a meeting, and accompanying report, in AP to help disseminate the above inviting donors, government, forest department, tribal welfare department, NGOs and academics

3. Helping to establish a KM system in African Humanitarian Action
This collaborative project is with African Humanitarian Action to help to establish knowledge and learning practices. The project will assist AHA to develop a framework for improving knowledge management and learning across its country offices. It is expected that through the application of knowledge management principles, AHA would be able to make better use of its existing knowledge base, as well as develop simple processes and procedures that foster knowledge creation and learning. The project aims to use a participatory knowledge audit approach involving workshops for AHA staff, interviews and an e-discussion group. As part of the process, AHA will host a workshop on KM for other NGOs based in Addis and further afield, and form an African NGO KM Community of Practice.

Project outcomes will demonstrate:

1. How knowledge and learning principles and tools can be used to improve the use of knowledge within Southern humanitarian NGOs;
   
2. The ways in which the delivery of humanitarian assistance and services can be made more efficient and effective through improved learning and knowledge management;
   
3. Understand how ODI knowledge is currently and can be incorporated into the knowledge systems of Southern NGOs;
   
4. Understanding of the capacity-building activities necessary for 1, 2 and 3;
   
5. The potential demand for KM advisory services among African NGOs.

4. Collaboration with WaterAid to explore the CSO-PRSP relationship in the water sector.
Overall objectives of this project are to improve understanding of how WaterAid and its CSO partners use evidence-based research to influence policy, to identify strengths and weaknesses and draw lessons of wider relevance to the PPA. It also aims to build a firm foundation for future collaboration and joint learning on how CSOs can be supported to contribute better to policy processes.

This collaborative project with WaterAid builds upon two existing collaborative initiatives, firstly WatSan and PRSPs research. The main research phase is complete and the objective now is to develop a strategy for communicating research findings effectively in-country, promote constructive debate about different policy options within the water sector and develop effective means for CSOs to monitor implementation and performance of sector strategies. The second initiative is the Water Poverty Learning Seminar. WPP is providing technical support and advice to a series of internal learning seminars at WaterAid. The objective now is to assist WaterAid in further developing its conceptual framework and improving integration between its projects and policy research and advocacy activities at different levels.

5. Work with the Somalia Agriculture Technical Group (and others) to help them to influence the agriculture sector policies and interventions within Somalia.
The project will assist Somalia Agriculture Technical Group (SATG) to strengthen its networking structure so that SATG can effectively catalyze policy processes relating to agricultural development and natural resource management in Somalia. It is expected that through enhanced networking, SATG will be linked to the Somaliland and Puntland authorities, to the Transitional National Government, and to the aid community. The project will do this using a participatory approach involving SATG members linked through the already established e-mail discussion group. The results of mediated dialogue could potentially be used to prepare communication materials for formal presentation to the groups described above. It has also been suggested that SATG should constitute a Somali Development Consultative Group to address the authorities and aid community more directly. Ultimately, it is hoped that SATG will influence agricultural policies and approaches implemented in Somalia.

The project will demonstrate: (i) How different networking approaches can best influence policy and practice of different types of institutions; (ii) How Diaspora researchers can influence policies and programmes in situations of chronic conflict and political instability; and (iii) Identification of the types of capacity-building necessary for 1 and 2.

6. Understanding civil society networks in Ghana: the constraints and opportunities for evidence-based policy influence
This collaborative project between Civic Response and ODI will provide case-study material on, and improve ODI's understanding of, how environmental CSOs in Ghana use research in advocacy campaigns to promote policy and ways in which constraints that they face in doing so can be tackled. The project also aims to examine the information needs of CSOs working in the forest sector and the communication strategies currently employed.

Project activities will include group discussions, feed-back workshops and focussed interviews with selected CSOs to draw together an assessment of the sources of information used for policy-influence; an assessment of the constraints which are faced in using empirical data to inform campaigns; a collection of examples of 'best-practise' of the use of empirical data in policy influence; and identify strategies and methods to improve the availability and effectiveness of research-based evidence by environmental CSOs.

The proposed activities would provide case-studies on the way in which research is used by CSOs to influence policy in Ghana; identification of the constraints which CSOs face in basing campaigns on empirical data; recommendations on methodologies, tools and strategies for increasing the evidence base to campaigning by NGOs; and improved understanding and capacity of key environmental NGOs to use research-based evidence to inform policy makers.

7. Policy influencing and Media Training with CPRC partners
The aim of this project is to build capacity of researchers in policy influencing techniques, including tools for media engagement and the development of practical media strategies. The project will develop and pilot training materials for development researchers in policy influencing and media engagement. The target audience for the first training workshop will be UK-based Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) research partners with a number of reserved places for other ODI researchers. The piloted materials will then be available for redesign by CPRC country teams based on their training needs.

The project will involve 5 stages from workshop planning and preparation of material, the workshop itself and evaluation of the capacity building achieved by the workshop. The evaluation will feed into the redesign of training materials for in-country workshops. Collaboration will be with ODI, Panos Institute and a number of the CPRC's established partners.

8. Partnership Brokering
This project supported a DFID funded CPRC partnership and business planning meeting in Kenya, in January 2005. The 5 day meeting resolved many of the tensions between the partners by encouraging them all to recognise that it is possible for partners to have different specific interests and aspirations for the programme and still collaborate effectively on shared objectives. Participants at the meeting went on to refine the draft CPRC-Kenya initiative into a fully developed programme. A guidance note on "How to broker effective North-South Research and Capacity Building Partnerships" has been produced.

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