Policy entrepreneurship for poverty reduction: bridging research and policy in international development

Abstract

Bridging research and policy is a topic of growing practical and scholarly interest in both North and South. Contributions by four experienced practitioners and in four papers by researchers illustrate the value of existing frameworks and add four new lessons: the need for donors and research foundations to foster research capacity and to protect it from political interference; the need for researchers to use detailed case material in order to inform high-level policy debates within and across national boundaries, often by working in cross-country teams; the importance of presenting research results in such a way that they cannot be over-simplified; and the value of creating alliances between researchers and civil society advocacy groups. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction: New Perspectives on Africa’s Youth Employment Challenge

“…Two closely related ideas -youth bulge (Evoh 2012;Sommers 2011) and demographic dividend (Ahmed et al 2016;Choi 2016;Lipton 2011, 2012) -figure prominently in Development and the Next Generation, and have since become key aspects of a now dominant narrative that both justifies and orients policy around youth and employment. A youth bulge refers to the situation that arises when countries reduce infant mortality but still have a high fertility rate, and as a result, a large share of the population comprises children and young adults.…”

The Impact of Research on Development Policy and Practice: This Much We Know

“…in the form of policy briefs) to policymakers. Court and Maxwell (2005) claim that successful evidence-based policymaking occurs when, among other things, the links are well made between researchers and policymakers, for example, through networks or by intermediaries.…”

“…Good communication is vital for researchers (Saxena 2005), and policy is only influenced when the evidence is credible and well communicated (Court and Maxwell 2005). At its best, communication starts early in the research; it is designed into the research plan and is carried out as the project unfolds (Carden 2009).…”

“…Existing theory, they say, stresses the role of translators and communicators, a view echoed by Harvey, Lewin and Fisher (2012) who suggest that evolving notions of what constitutes expert or valid knowledge have affected development research institutes in the global north, bringing an increased focus on the roles of intermediaries and networks. In this context, researchers are being joined by other actors, such as research communication specialists, not necessarily involved in undertaking research but who seek to strengthen the use of research within change processes (Harvey et al 2012;Court and Maxwell 2005). As researchers typically have little or no influence over the capacity of their audience to use their research findings, others maintain that further investment should be made in supporting the pull through and absorption of research through, for example, the use of intermediaries or knowledge brokers to mediate relationships or transmit knowledge between academics and research users (Stevens et al 2013).…”

Information Politics, Transnational Advocacy, and Education for All

“…Scholars at the Overseas Development Institute have conducted a number of important studies on the links between research and global development policy (Court & Maxwell 2005;Court & Young 2005;Pollard & Court 2005). This body of work points to three broad factors that determine whether research-based evidence is likely to impact policy-making: the external political context, the relationships between research and policy communities, and the quality of the evidence gathered.…”