Research to Action - Latest Comments

Re: Three steps to fruitful communication with policymakers

Malon Shirley — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 10:05:54 -0000

Very informative article! Communication and deeper understanding are needed in dealing with policy-making. You can utilize Connecteam software in creating checklists so that all objectives can be tackled and accomplished which will benefit everyone. This software is very cost-efficient due to the numerous useful tools it provides for communication and management which is essential in many lines of work.

Re: Decolonising research: Some useful strategies

Priyanthi Fernando — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 10:20:38 -0000

Thank you for broaching this subject. You have gone a long way towards describing how knowledge can be decolonised but just haven't been able to take the final, most crucial step. Why do northern researchers have to do their research in global south communities at all? Wouldn't all the things you mention that cause cognitive injustice - the use of northern theoretical frameworks, the power imbalances, the lack of local knowledge and culture, and the inability to communicate in the local languages - all be overcome if global south researchers researched their own communities. I am hoping that the COVID19 pandemic has put the nail in the coffin of global north researchers and consultants, the white saviours and that it has also exposed the fact 'exclusion' is not just a phenomenon of the global south. I am sure there is sufficient poverty and exclusion in UK and other countries of the global north to keep researchers busy......

Re: Why study the research environment?

Tony Onoja — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 03:55:45 -0000

Indeed, Dr.Clément Gévaudan had stirred up a serious discussion and very timely research question in this blog. It is very true that developing country universities perform poorly
especially African countries , and this issue is significantly under researched, particularly regarding capacity building processes. It is not surprising to see that in Africa, only South
African universities (two of them) made the list of the best 500
universities in global ranking based on research. Some of the reasons I
have seen for this development, based on my experience in South Africa
are as follows: (1) South African universities provide enabling
environment for the conduct of research with respect of provision of
library facilities that are current, basic infrastructure in
universities such as uninterrupted electricity and water supply. In some
African countries such as Nigeria, power supply is a serious issue.
Some Lecturers and researchers have to provide their own electricity
generator plants in their offices. (2) Most South African universities
encouraged their lecturers and researchers with funding to publish in
high impact journals in the world. This is not an act you will see in
other universities in Africa. (3) South Africa pays their researchers
for publishing in highly reputed and recommended journals given by the
universities. This too is a very big luxury to many universities in
Africa where lecturers are required to publish with their meager
salaries. Funding for research are scarcely ever made available by the
governments. Some of the hard working researchers and lecturers have to
depend on very competitive bidding for research calls from international
body before they can have the opportunity to sponsor publication of
their research works in high impact journals that can make their works
and their universities visible. The issue of funding and capacity
building of young scholars is central to the ability of African
researchers to make meaningful impact in international research globally
either in Social Sciences or other areas. Until these issues are
addressed, African scholars will have little voice in Social Science
research outputs globally. -Dr, Anthony O. Onoja (Department of
Agriculture and Animal Health, University of South Africa, also
affiliated to Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension,
University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria)

Re: Introduction to Behavioural Change: Workshop Learning Report

Rachid ELAÏDI — Mon, 21 May 2018 17:20:08 -0000

Il est intéressant de communiquer sur toutes les phases de recherche . et que la communication soit totale et au grand publique ,; je serais intéressé par toutes sortes de recherche et mon email : rachid.elaidi@gmail.com , en politique, , psychologie,en défense militaire, en mathématiques,... car le fait de communiquer ,il y a toujours le retour de l’ascenseur par voie des commentaires....et surtout par un travail de recherche où tous les acteurs participent,avec rigueur...la communication est le seul moyen de faire avancer le recherche...

Re: Presenting Complex Data Visually: Using web-based tools to make your development data travel

Grind Time — Wed, 02 May 2018 09:26:44 -0000

I'd love to see an updated version of this same post! Great content.

Re: Partnering for more effective and impactful development research

Dr Shailendra Singh — Tue, 01 May 2018 19:03:31 -0000

One way of not 'exacerbating existing inequalities' and ‘Building a Partnership of Equals’ is collaborate more with local researchers. Think tanks conducting research in the Pacific are doing a great job from outsider perspective. What is often lacking is the insider perspective/lived experience, that can add to the richness/validity of the findings. This gap is partly due to lack of local research capacity. By including more Pacific faces, forward-looking/visionary international think-tanks kill two birds with one stone—help accelerate development of local/regional research capacity as well as further validate/enrich the research for more well-rounded, impactful results.

Re: What Doesn’t Work Communicating Research about ending VAWG

GRAAD — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 05:33:38 -0000

I liked this part of the piece : What doesn’t work meeting with government officials?
Very interesting outlooks to have an impact on policies ;

- arrive with a clear and evidence-based solution to put forward.
- keep it simple and take it one step at a time,

Re: How does policy change happen?

chemfrance — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 06:02:29 -0000

Well articulated write up. my question is; how would i personally be involved in making a policy change at my level?.

Re: Knowledge for Action: Overcoming barriers for a successful adaptation

Jag Rawat — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 19:23:07 -0000

It is very heartening to read some of your work reported at your Facebook Page, Ms Arianna. It is good that you now are working at Delhi which is reeling under intense pressure of pollution. I am a scientist at a University in a city, which is Counter-magnet City to National Capital and it is named as Hisar. I like the 'knowledge process approach in your blog for adaptation' and I am keen that this knowledge of yours also gests translated at First Green Village of Haryana, on which some work has already begun. The village is named Dobhi and it is in Hisar district.

Re: ASSAR–R2A Climate Month: Time’s Up

Daniel Morchain (Oxfam-ASSAR) — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 14:26:14 -0000

Great blog Georgina! Thanks... Reminds me of Payam Akhavan's lesson... so relevant to people like us "The knowledge that matters most could only be found in the intimate trenches of human struggle; not by observing the world at 30 thousand feet"

Re: Why [just maybe] we need to stop talking about climate change

Kwame — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 12:48:40 -0000

Andrew! This is a fascinating post! With regard to finding a new concept to help take about climate change, you might want to check out Mike Hulme's book Weathered: Cultures of Climate. He suggests the term weatherculture to replace climate as his argument is that climate has always been understood within the context of weather and culture. While I am not entirely on board of how effective the term weatherculture will be this connecting of culture to our understanding of weather as an interpretation for climate might be a first step to actually having a discussion and maybe as you suggest, replace the term climate change, if need be.

Re: Impact Diaries: the Evernote way

Tess Newton Cain — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 01:36:34 -0000

Thanks for this - it looks very interesting and I will look into it further. I use Google mail rather than Outlook, is there the facility to integrate with that platform?

Re: Communication and Consortium

Annapoorna Ravichander — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 06:47:42 -0000

Good read, I remember this piece, when I was managing the publication of Aditi bulletin when I was working at CSTEP.

Re: What Doesn’t Work Communicating Research about ending VAWG

Annapoorna Ravichander — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 08:53:13 -0000

An interesting piece. I definitely liked the last part-What doesn’t work at an international donor-hosted lunch? Using jargons and technical terms continues be a way of communicating for certain researchers/research organisations, I believe that they fail to realize that they have an interesting audience waiting to read their work/report but walk away with no knowledge.

Re: Assessing Research Systems in Developing Countries – 5 reasons why it matters and a teaser on how to get started

Research to Action — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 08:11:39 -0000

Hi Bono, you can find out more about the initiative and how to get in touch on the GDN website http://gdn.int/html/page11....

Re: Assessing Research Systems in Developing Countries – 5 reasons why it matters and a teaser on how to get started

Bono Sen — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 13:55:28 -0000

I'd like to know more about the Doing Research initiative and am interested in getting involved in the effort is there is opportunity. I am currently based in India and working on building capacity to conduct environmental health research that will build the evidence base and inform policy. Traditional research approaches won't suffice. There is need for simultaneous research conduct and translation.

Re: Six useful guides on communication strategy

ombretta baggio — Wed, 10 May 2017 16:38:28 -0000

The Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has just published a Community Engagement and Accountability Guide and Toolkit. Great resources for local actors to improve communication, listening and action www.ifrc.org/CEA

Re: Six useful guides on communication strategy

Guido Couck — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 06:40:15 -0000

Belgian development agency has also published a guide on Communication for Development, which you can find here: https://www.btcctb.org/publ...

Re: How to report fake news

jeffjones — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 14:07:15 -0000

I want to report fake news on Face book. A page by the name of Sherry Shriner dated , Feb.10 at 5:33 A.M. posted that "NBC Reports: All Americans Will Receive an RFID Implant." " One of the pieces of “evidence” now commonly proffered in support of
this claim is a video clip from an NBC Nightly News broadcast (with
anchor Brian Williams) touted as reporting that “All Americans Will
Receive a Microchip Implant in 2017”:" (Snopes, David Mikkelson)
Apparently Obama care is blamed and this is why some Americans do not support public health care. At any rate I tried to communicate this with FB but it was beyond my ability. I felt obligated to write this piece of reality.
I want to thank-you for giving me ease of access.

Re: Theory of change week: Monitoring and Evaluation

Jodi Wright — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 16:30:13 -0000

Re: Four strategies for improving knowledge exchange among scientists and decision-makers.

Adrian Goodrich — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 22:16:00 -0000

I wanted to mention how knowledge brokers help in my governmental service. The Training Development department of my governmental service relies on knowledge brokers to Translate our research and papers to the Stakeholders. Each product built by the training development department is run through the The ADDIE model. This is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools. Course managers are the knowledge brokers who effectively sell our training products to the stakeholders. Without the knowledge brokers much is lost in the translation and decision makers often will not move forward on just the research alone.

Re: Whose knowledge counts?

ResearchImpact — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 19:29:21 -0000

Thanks for this insightful post. One group worth considering is the new Knowledge To Practice Learning Network (@KIPLNetwork; also search for their Linked In group). The group explicitly chose "knowledge" into practice, not "research" into practice to embrace the knowledge of non-academic/lived experience/practice based experts. Vicky Ward (Leeds Uni) is a champion of the network and of practice based knowledge.

One possible joining up of academic and non-academic knowledge is the increasing recognition of the need to inform academic research with the knowledge and needs of stakeholders. How does stakeholder engagement compare with sharing of practice based knowledge? Can stakeholder engagement join up the knowledges of academic and non-academic participants?

Re: The dynamics of development communications

Sudeep Uprety — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 11:55:04 -0000

Very well agree James on this. Yes, communications activities need to be embedded as one of the core components of research projects for continuous audience engagement and interest throughout the life of the project. Thanks for your feedback.

Re: The dynamics of development communications

James Newell — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 11:08:23 -0000

Very useful points, thanks. One thing I'd like to add ... we need to make sure the findings we produce are relevant to key stakeholders, which means comms activities need to start from the start of the research project.

Re: Policy Week Twitter Q&A: Engagement between Scientists and Politicians

Annapoorna Ravichander — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 06:06:37 -0000

This is very interesting. Could I have more information on some of the topics discussed. This will be very useful for our organisation and for my team?