IDS Bulletin: 50.1
Editors: Georgalakis, J. and Rose, P.
Publisher: IDS
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This special issue of the IDS Bulletin aims to identify how partnerships focused on the production of policy-engaged research seek to achieve societal impact and explores the challenges in these processes. The collaborations analysed span academia, civil society and government, from the grassroots to the national and global levels. By locating these examples within the broader debates on interactions between researchers and research users designed to strengthen evidence informed decision making, this publication offers concepts and practices to inform those funding, designing and undertaking development research.
The featured case studies are explored through the perspectives of both researchers and their partners in civil society and policy. They are predominantly taken from a diverse portfolio of research projects funded through the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) Strategic Partnership. A collaboration with the Impact Initiative, this IDS Bulletin is essential reading for all those in research organisations, development agencies and donors committed to the better use of evidence and learning for development.
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- Foreword
Diana Dalton, UK Department for International Development (DFID)
- Introduction: Identifying the Qualities of Research–Policy Partnerships in International Development: A New Analytical Framework
James Georgalakis and Pauline Rose
- Rethinking Research Impact through Principles for Fair and Equitable Partnerships
Kate Newman, Sowmyaa Bharadwaj and Jude Fransman
- Pathways to Impact – Insights from Research Partnerships in Uganda and India
Rona Bronwin, Rachel Hinton and Laura Savage
- Exploring Partnerships between Academia and Disabled Persons’ Organisations: Lessons Learnt from Collaborative Research in Africa
Maria Kett, Mark T. Carew, John-Bosco Asiimwe, Richard Bwalya, Anderson Gitonga, Boakai A. Nyehn, Joyce Olenja, Leslie Swartz and Nora Groce
- Layered and Linking Research Partnerships: Learning from YOUR World Research in Ethiopia and Nepal
Vicky Johnson, Anannia Admassu, Andrew Church, Jill Healey and Sujeeta Mathema
- Fundamental Challenges in Academic–Government Partnership in Conflict Research in the Pastoral Lowlands of Ethiopia
Mercy Fekadu Mulugeta, Fana Gebresenbet, Yonas Tariku and Ekal Nettir
- Regional Research–Policy Partnerships for Health Equity and Inclusive Development: Reflections on Opportunities and Challenges from a Southern African Perspective
Nicola Yeates, Themba Moeti, Mubita Luwabelwa
Focus projects:
This research examines common systemic barriers disabled people encounter when accessing services, and the lack of information and inclusion in national level poverty reduction strategies.
Our project explores the potential of community based accountability relationships to raise children's foundational learning outcomes, with a focus on the most disadvantaged primary-school learners: namely those who are from poorer households and, within these, girls. We ask both whether and how changes occur when school actors are supported to view their accountability as being primarily to their local community and their goal as being to raise all children's learning.
A new set of initiatives, called graduation programmes, target poor households with asset transfers and income support for a fixed period. The objective is to graduate poor households out of poverty and support their resilience so they do not fall back into poverty.
Important development programmes such as microfinance often do not reach the very poorest households. A new set of initiatives, called Graduation programmes, have targeted these very poor households. Their objective is to graduate them out of poverty in a sustainable manner and make them resilient so they do not fall back into poverty.
The overall aim of the research is to generate new knowledge about how marginalised youth perceive, navigate, negotiate and respond to uncertainty in impoverished fragile and conflict affected communities in Ethiopia and Nepal.
The research delivers an in-depth understanding of the problems that teachers face supporting students from diverse backgrounds, the teaching practices they adopt, and the kinds of support they need to help all children fulfill their learning potential.
The project uses Collaborative Participatory Action Research methods and seeks to contribute new analytical evidence to debate and policy about the role and effectiveness of regional formations in health-poverty reduction programmes in the Global South.
Rapid changes in the natural, social, and economic environment are occurring in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley, as part of a state-led development vision of repositioning the region as a major sugar exporter. At the same time, these changes raise risks of environmental degradation, and the emergence of new kinds of inequality and conflict.
What political and institutional conditions are associated with effective poverty reduction and development in Liberia post-conflict, and what can domestic and external actors do to promote them?