The Civil Society Partnership Programme
produces several types of publication. Use the links below
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 Policy
Engagement: How civil society can be more effective
Julius Court, Enrique Mendizabal, David Osborne and John
Young
Civil society organisations (CSOs) could have a greater
impact on policy processes in developing countries. This report
shows why and how better use of evidence by CSOs is part of
the solution to increasing the policy influence and pro-poor
impact of their work. The report includes strategic guidance
and practical approaches regarding how CSOs can ensure their
policy engagement is more effective, influential and sustained.
More...
View
publication online (adobe pdf 1mb)
or printed copies will be available shortly through ODI
bookshop |
| Briefing
papers |
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 Policy
Engagement for Poverty Reduction – How Civil Society Can
be More Effective
Julius Court, ODI Briefing Paper 3, June 2006
This ODI Briefing Paper focuses on why and how CSOs can
engage more effectively in policy processes in international
development. Section 1 sets the scene and highlights the opportunities
and challenges facing CSOs policy work. Section 2 focuses on
why evidence matters for CSOs’ work in international development.
Section 3 provides a framework that matches the engagement mechanisms
and evidence needs to the critical stages of policy processes.
Section 4 summarises strategic and practical advice on how CSOs
can ensure their policy engagement is more effective, influential
and sustained. More...
View
publication online (adobe pdf 265kb)
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| Working papers |
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 CSO
Capacity for Policy Engagement: Lessons Learned from the CSPP
Consultations in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Naved Chowdhury, Chelsie Finlay-Notman and Ingie Hovland,
ODI Working Paper 272, August 2006
The nature of CSOs in development work is changing, but how
successfully - and leading where? While there is still a strong
demand for CSOs to 'sustain the good work' in terms of direct
service delivery, there is also a growing need for civil society
to participate in policy processes, in order to bring about
sustained long-term change. Surprisingly, there is very little
systematic research on how CSOs all over the world are influencing
policy processes, especially from the point of view of those
actually involved in the policymaking process in the South.
This paper aims to compare and contrast the lessons that emerged
from the CSPP Southern consultations regarding the use of evidence-based
policy-engagement, and for ODI to learn what role it may take
in aiding CSO involvement in policy processes in the future,
especially through the CSPP. More...
View
publication online (pdf 508kb) or
printed
copies will be available shortly through the ODI bookshop
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 Understanding
Networks: The Functions of Research Policy Networks
Enrique Mendizabal, ODI Working Paper 271, June 2006
We are constantly talking about networks. Banks use their
networks to offer global services to customers; airlines fly
passengers all over the world via their networks of partners;
news agencies use media networks to keep us informed every minute
of the day; and terrorist networks threaten citizens around
the world. The importance of networks extends to the development
sector: they organise civil society to advocate for and implement
change; they link the local with the global, the private with
the public; and they provide spaces for the creation, sharing
and dissemination of knowledge. In a way, networks seem to make
anything and everything happen. But we have yet to understand
what they are and what they can and cannot do. In the development
literature, a huge variety of policy and social network concepts
and applications exists. This paper attempts to set out a framework
to help clarify what research policy networks do. More...
View
publication online (pdf 219kb) or
order
printed copy |
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 Capacity
Development for Policy Advocacy: Current thinking and approaches
among agencies supporting Civil Society Organisations
Monica Blagescu and John Young, ODI Working Paper 260, January
2006
Capacity building is likely to become increasingly important
throughout the life of the Civil Society Partnerships Programme.
The team recognises that it is important, early on, to develop
a clear understanding of current principles and practice in
capacity building for Southern organisations involved in using
research-based evidence in policy processes, and establish a
common position and vocabulary as a starting point for engagement
with potential partners. This Working Paper is meant to facilitate
this process.It presents a summary of current thinking on issues
of capacity building for Northern and Southern organisations
involved in using research-based evidence in policy processes,
and provides some examples of current practice among organisations
involved in work similar to that of the CSPP. More...
View
publication online (adobe pdf 357kb)
or order
printed copy |
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 Partnerships
and Accountability: Current thinking and approaches among agencies
supporting Civil Society Organisations
Monica Blagescu and John Young, ODI Working Paper 255,
August 2005
CSOs are increasingly involved in development policy, and recognise
the need to use evidence and engage with policy processes more
effectively. ODI's Civil Society Partnerships Programme is designed
to help them to do this. While seeking to capitalise on ODI's
40 years of development research and policy work, the programme
recognises the need to learn much more about how Southern organisations
do it. To facilitate this the CSPP will need to develop long
term equitable relationships with a wide range of Southern partner
organisations. This working paper presents a summary of current
thinking on issues of accountability, partnership and capacity-building
between Northern and Southern organisations, and provides some
examples of current practice among organisations involved in
similar work. More...
View
publication online (adobe pdf 264kb)
or order
printed copy |
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 Networks
and Policy Processes in International Development: a literature
review
Emily Perkin and Julius Court, ODI Working Paper 252,
August 2005
We know networks matter. However, beyond the hype, there still
remains limited systematic understanding of when, why and how
they function best for policy impact in international development.
The objective of this paper is to review and synthesise existing
literature in an effort to start to answer these questions.
The paper draws together over 100 diverse texts, hoping to provide
a systematic overview of this recent work from the general literature
as well as from that focusing on international development.
An accompanying annotated bibliography provides more information
on each of the sources reviewed. More...
View
publication online (adobe pdf 304kb)
or order
printed copy |
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 Civil
Society Participation in Health Research and Policy: A review
of models, mechanisms and measures
Shyama Kuruvilla, ODI Working Paper 251, August
2005
Civil society organisations can participate in health
research and policy in a variety of ways. As with other complex
socio-political interventions, replicating participation methods
across contexts, in the same way and to the same effect, is
clearly impracticable, if not impossible. However, an overarching
understanding of participation processes, effects and explanatory
principles is required to inform policy, strategic action
and further research. This paper reviews organising frameworks
and explanatory principles in the literature which could inform
the design and evaluation of CSO participation with health
research and policy and in wider social development contexts.
This paper is structured using broad thematic categories.
More...
View
publication online (adobe pdf 265kb)
or order
printed copy
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 How
Civil Society Organisations Use Evidence to Influence Policy
Processes: A literature review
Amy Pollard and Julius Court, ODI Working Paper 249,
July 2005
If CSOs are to use evidence to bring about pro-poor policy
they have three main objectives: to inspire, inform and improve.
All of this is much more easily said than done; reality is,
of course, much more complex. This paper is based on an annotated
bibliography of over 100 documents on how civil society organisations
use evidence to influence policy. It summarises key debates,
findings and conclusions from the literature, and points both
to gaps and to new directions for future work. More...
View
publication online (adobe pdf 258kb)
or order
printed copy |
| Annotated bibliographies
(online) |
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| Programme Reports |
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 The
ODI Civil Society Partnerships Programme: Annual Report 2006
This report covers year two of DFID's seven year PPA with
ODI. DFID's investment so far amounts to £1.9m, with
a further £5.35m foreseen to 2011. The PPA is intended
to strengthen the contribution of developing country CSOs
to poverty reduction policy and to support ODI's engagement
with them, this report details the significant achievements
have been recorded against all the major objectives. A major
review of future plans was carried out in 2005-6, involving
developing country partners. As a result, new activities are
planned, consistent with the original purpose of the PPA and
have already been discussed with DFID. One major issue confronts
the CSPP, which is the need to respond to the demand from
Southern partners for additional support for capacity building
and collaborative projects. Having identified both need and
demand, it would be right for the programme to be scaled up
but this cannot be done without additional funds.
View full Annual Report
2006 (pdf 139kb) or Executive
Summary
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 CSOs,
Policy Influence, and Evidence Use: A Short Survey
This report presents the results of a survey of civil society
organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
The survey addressed three major research questions: How are
CSOs influencing policies in their country? What is the context
in which they are influencing policy? What are these CSOs requesting
from ODI and what types of support do they need? The survey
was designed to help us understand the types of evidence CSOs
use for policy influence; the extent of success they feel they
are having; the incentives and disincentives for CSOs to use
evidence; how types of context affects all this; and what they
feel their needs are. This paper highlights a number of clear
and incisive findings.
View full Survey Report
(pdf 337) or Executive
Summary |
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The ODI Civil Society Partnership Programme: Progress June
2004 - March 2005
This first annual report describes progress made during
the first year of ODI's Partnership Programme Agreement (PPA)
with DFID from April 2004 to March 2005. Section 1 describes
the background to the programme, the principles guiding the
programme, administrative and governance arrangements, and
the planned activities for the first year. Section 2 provides
an overview of achievements, Section 3 some evidence of impact
so far, and Section 4 an overview of plans for the second
year. Hypertext links are provided to further more detailed
information in a series of Appendices, and on the Civil Society
Partnership Programme (and other) web sites.
View full progress
report June 2004 – March 2005 (Pdf
330kb)
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 CSPP:
Issues and Options for the Second Phase
This paper presents a brief review of progress so far, an
overall programme framework, and an outline of possible activities
for the next two years (from April 2006 to March 2008) at which
time there will be a formal mid-term review. It is based on
the results of an extensive consultation with a wide range of
CSOs in the north and south, a review of programme outputs,
after-action-reviews of some activities, a one-day workshop
for ODI staff involved in the programme, and a series of meetings
and workshops for the programme management team.
View full Issues
and Options paper (Pdf
123kb)
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 Civil
Society Organisations Partnership Programme Outline
ODI has been working with government, non-government and private
sector organisations in the north and south for the past 40
years and has launched a new programme designed to promote
improved contribution by CSOs to pro-poor national and international
development policies. As summarised in this two page leaflet
the programme will focus on four outcomes...
Summary of CSPP including
details of 4 outcomes (Pdf 110kb).
Also available in Portuguese
(pdf 105kb)
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Back to CSPP index
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