Knowledge System Development: Insights From Indonesia and International Applications

Abstract

Knowledge System Development: Insights from Indonesia and International Applications illustrates how knowledge systems work in the evidence-based policy making process and the dynamics of different actors in the ecosystem. Applying the Knowledge System Model 2.0 in Indonesia and in selected international case studies, it explores key issues and dynamics in the knowledge-to-policy process in Indonesia and offers important insights for application in other country contexts. Written from the unique vantage point of knowledge system actors themselves in cooperation with development practitioners and researchers, the book captures efforts to clarify the roles of different actors in the knowledge system and how they interacted to influence policy. When the actors and institutions in the knowledge system interact and challenge each other to articulate and commit to a shared purpose, it is easier to navigate the inherent tensions between technical solutions and political objectives to advance the reform agenda. Intermediaries in the knowledge system can play an important role in facilitating the interactions between these actors and institutions.

Knowledge Translation in the Global South: Bridging Different Ways of Knowing for Equitable Development

“…Southern KT practitioners are aware of the structural challenges they face in their respective contexts. Whereas Northern literature argues that knowledge professionals and researchers have, over the past three decades, moved from linear models to interactive ones and finally to system-level understandings of how change happens, there is widespread recognition in low-income countries that barriers to KT have always largely been understood as systemic (Hertz et al 2020).…”

“…The models of KT support that some funders have pioneered, which focus on long-term support for networks of thinktanks, appear to provide a far more empowering environment for mutual learning and bottom-up KT strategising and planning. (Hertz et al 2020).…”

“…Every effort needs to be made to connect research commissioning and capacity support with networks of actors that are embedded in the politics of knowledge. Concrete examples such as Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Tradesupported Knowledge Sector Initiative in Indonesia and the FCDO-funded Building Capacity for Research Uptake (BCURE) programme were established with this particular goal in mind, aiming to help establish a knowledge system that brings together competing perspectives on what constitutes 'evidence' and how policymakers should incorporate that evidence in decision-making(Hertz Wulandari and Prasetiamartati 2022;Punton 2016). Relatively simple but levers for change include support for national research-granting councils, forging closer connections between governments' bilateral research funders and their country missions, or capacity-building initiatives focused on networks of universities or thinktanks.…”