* Explains best practice on conducting an “influencing agenda”

* Powerful and wide-ranging case studies

* Explores the link between research and policy


This is a crucial book for international development researchers who want the lessons of their research converted into changes in government and aid agency policy.

International policy making is extremely complex and little studied. This book reviews what we do already know and provides a conceptual framework for future research. Through four case studies, ranging from local to international and from theory to practice, it explores the vital importance of cultures and structures, people, places and timing.
International development work attracts some of the most intelligent entrants to the world of public service, young people who want their commitment to the shaping of a better world to be reflected in the policies of the ministries and agencies they have joined. This book will help to explain to those young people, and to their leaders in the international development community, how to bring about the changes in policy that will promote a true pro-poor development, based on the evidence of what works.

Table of Contents:

Foreword
Simon Maxwell

Preface
About the authors
Acronyms

Part I. Background and Theoretical Framework

1. Research and Policy in International Development: Introduction
Julius Court, Ingie Hovland and John Young

2. Context, Evidence, Links: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Research-Policy Processes
Emma Crewe, Ingie Hovland and John Young

Part II. Case Studies

3. The PRSP Initiative: Multilateral Policy Change and the Role of Research
Karin Christiansen with Ingie Hovland

4. How the Sphere Project Came into Being: A Case Study of Policy-making in the Humanitarian Aid Sector and the Relative Influence of Research
Margie Buchanan-Smith

5. Animal Health Care in Kenya: The Road to Community-based Animal Health Service Delivery
John Young, Julius Kajume, and Jacob Wanyama

6. Sustainable Livelihoods: A Case Study of the Evolution of DFID Policy
William Solesbury

Part III. Synthesis and Conclusion

7. Cross-cutting Issues and Implications: Promoting More Informed International Development Policy
Julius Court, Ingie Hovland and John Young

Bibliography