User:Tsinelas at panulat/sandbox

There is should be a straightforward relationship between research and policy – specifically with good research designed to be relevant to policy, and its results delivered in an accessible form to policy-makers – and with good policy-making securely and rationally based on relevant research findings. However, this is not the case. Every now and then, research is not designed to be relevant to policy. Sometimes it is so designed, but fails to have an impact due to some factors such as timeliness, presentation, or manner of communication. Further, policy-makers do not see research findings as central to their decision-making. The relationship between research and policy is often weak, quite often tense.

The traditional way of understanding the ‘policy cycle’ is to divide it into four neat stages – problem definition and agenda-setting, formal decision-making; policy implementation; and evaluation. Monitoring and Evaluation Monitoring is a further aspect of the policy process over which researchers can have a significant impact. The ratification and monitoring of international agreements, for example, potentially requires research and analysis. To date, governments, private foundations, corporations and charities are increasingly imposing requirements on research institutions to account for their use of funds and the relevance of their research. Indeed, there are a number of reports and reviews seeking to understand and assess the impact of research on policy (Hainsworth & Eden-Green, 2000).

Participatory Rural Analysis (PRA) combines research and practice, thereby addressing implementation and monitoring problems at the same time as testing research and policy ideas. This ‘grass-roots’ or participatory style of research also helps build relations between researchers and those whom the research is about or for whom it is intended. In developing countries, it is evident that traditional (informal and common) communicative structures are more useful than national (top-down) structures or the mass media, which provide information that is too general or prescriptive to assist research users (Burke 1999).