The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana has been working with Politics & Ideas and INASP to apply the Context Matters Framework and Mr. Ebenezer Sampong, Deputy Executive Director for Technical Services at the EPA, told Leandro Echt about the agency’s plans as a result of the findings Why is evidence importance and what are your main challenges? I have been working at the EPA for over 20 years and one of the things I desire is to ensure that our evidence architectu

Emily Hayter, Vanesa Weyrauch and Leandro Echt reflect on working with agencies in Peru and Ghana to help understand how they use evidence in policy Good use of knowledge and research is essential for well-informed policy decisions. We know there are many different contextual factors that affect how evidence is used in policy. Knowing how all these interrelated factors play out in any specific public agency can be challenging—but without a systematic way of identifying the en

Researchers keen to see their findings impact on policy and practice are often told that better communication is the magic key to opening the door to the world of policy. The message is: if you can communicate your research well enough, policymakers will pay attention. While communication is no doubt important, the route from evidence to policy and practice is rarely this linear. Working as a knowledge broker involves stepping into the shoes of both researchers and policymake

[Editor’s note: This post is part of a series focused on sharing findings from the conceptual framework developed under the study “Going beyond “Context matters”, conducted by P&I and INASP. The presented framework intends to be a lens to help policymakers, researchers, practitioners and donors better define windows of opportunity in different public institutions to focus efforts on promoting better interaction between knowledge and policy. In a recent post, we have presented

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Paul R. Kelly, PhD Researcher in Impact, Evaluation & Service Design, Lancaster University, UK. Email: paulrichardkelly@gmail.com.] Introduction Welcome attention is now being paid to how evaluations can better engage with and contribute to policy processes, beyond dissemination alone. One example of this trend is CIPPEC’s work on influencing public policy assessments (2015). To add to this kind of work, I would also like pose some qu

By Dave Winer under CC at flickr.com [Editor’s note: This post is part a series produced by Vanesa Weyrauch and Leandro Echt from Politics&Ideas to share what we learn through the project “Going beyond ‘Context matters”, supported by the International Netowrk for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP).] Context matters, context matters, context matters…haven´t we all heard and said that many, many times? I guess no one at this point would underestimate how large

[Editor’s note: This post originally appeared at Research to Action. It was written by Nicholas Benequista, a researcher with an interest in media, social movements and how to build better connections between theory and action. He is currently working on a PhD thesis about Kenyan journalism with the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He tweets about media and international development at @benequista.] When working o

In 2014, P&I published the capacity building document Writing a case study for policy, by Anne Lan Candelaria. For many practitioners, the most familiar and most used format for presenting our work is through writing a case study.  Case studies emerged from the phenomenological research tradition which is concerned with ‘thick description’ of a phenomenon or event. Hence, to write an excellent case study, one has to weave a narrative from the point of view of his/her subject.

[Editor’s Note: This post was written by Clara Richards, programme manager at INASP, and was originally published at INASP’s blog] I originally shared these thoughts on the Evidence-Based Policy in Development Network (ebpdn) and after sparking some discussion, I thought it’d be good to also share them here on INASP’s Practising Development blog too. A colleague, Kirsty Newman, was recently looking for an example of research that had influenced policy not because of the quali

This post is based on a commentary by Kathryn Hochstetler that assesses the ways in which members of civil society “often shadow and contest the central actors of the regulatory state, even though they are ostensibly well outside of it”. Above all, this reflection reminds us that we cannot simply assume that the way public affairs are conducted merely involve elected politicians who oversee expert policymakers in specialized ministries or agencies. There are many other actors

[Editor’s note:  This is the third of a series of blogs by Claudio Jones on partisan think tanks. The first post can be read here, and the second post can be read here.] In the previous two posts, I have focused on the issues of defining think tanks and the roles they play. Within this broader definition of a think tank and the roles they play, the partisan think tank has its specificities. Non-partisan think tanks may be reluctant to address the parties, and may stay at the

Is the political role of partisan think tanks -in Latin America’s new democracies and elsewhere- equivalent to the standard concept of think tanks from the developed world? For one thing, think tanks are usually acknowledged by their primary role in politics: to exert significant influence on salient policy matters. However, I contend that partisan think tanks in new or emerging democracies should approach the larger public of citizens in order to provide them with more meani

[Editor’s note: This post introduces a new material produced by Anne Lan K. Candelaria for Politics & Ideas. This case study protocol will be followed by an example of a case study written by the same author, to be published in January 2014.] For many practitioners, the most familiar and most used format for presenting our work is through writing a case study.  Case studies emerged from the phenomenological research tradition which is concerned with ‘thick description’ of a p

In the previous post, I shared Jal Mehta’s framework that can help us take apart an idea into its different dimensions  (I suggest you review it before reading this post). The three dimensions are policy solutions, problem definition and public philosophy. An idea that floats around much of our work is that of evidence-based policy. But what is this idea? Is it a solution or a public philosophy? To what problem does it respond? The objective of this post is to outline aspects

In 2013 P&I, jointly with CIPPEC and Mendizabal Limited on behalf of GDNet, published Research and policy Global Development Network Topic Guide. ‘Evidence-based policy’ has become something of a holy grail for policymakers intent on formulating pragmatic, effective policies which work on the basis of evidence rather than ideology. In the last decade it has increasingly been seen as both an indicator of and way of attaining ‘good governance’ across the world, and in developin

Engaging youth in research is considered a useful source of knowledge on development challenges since they usually provide fresh perspectives and also an effective way of empowering young participation. Involving the young in research processes is fairly new. Recent years have seen increasing global awareness and acceptance of the need to mobilize the creativity, vision and unique perspectives of young people for the present and future development of communities (UNESCO, empo

Finnish schools are among the best in the world, but did not know, and apparently did not want to know it. Ironically, Finns found out that they were actually doing great on education just in 2000 when they participated in PISA – a standardized test given to 15-year-olds on their reading, math and science skills. As this article gathers, it was unexpected. A school principal even said: “I’m still surprised; I didn’t realize we were that good.” PISA, like many other tools to a

Are you interested in learning more about the relationship between research and policy? The following studies, also found in the Topic Guide, may be of interest: Solesbury, W. (2001). Evidence Based Policy: Whence it Came and Where it’s Going. ESRC UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice. London: Queen Mary University. Access online This concept of ‘evidence-based policy’ has been gaining currency over the last decade, particularly as the agenda has moved on to a con