Research and impact –
some reflections
Diana Mitlin
University of Manchester/ IIED
(Anthony Bebbington
University of Manchester/Clark University/
Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales)
History, context and biography
• Steady building of a network
–
–
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Frequent return visits
Research and other collaborations
Useful interventions in other people’s agendas
(Publication in Spanish - VERY IMPORTANT)
• Becoming part of a generation?
– Or part of a diffuse movement?
– (A policy/politically oriented, broadly social democratic
technocracy)
– A vibrant process of action research to nurture alternatives
• Moving with that generation/movement
– Over time, friends and colleagues become more senior,
Ministers, senior advisors, Presidential candidates
– Opens up impact opportunities - both ways
From networks through knowledge to
(fortuitous) impacts
• Housing policy in South Africa
• Representation of citizen struggles in
academic concepts
• Direct contribution to Gov’t of El Salvador in
writing mining policy and legislation
• Addressing Constituent Assembly in Ecuador
• Improved regulation of UK mining projects in
Peru
Building capacities: ours and theirs
• Diffuse partnerships up to early 2000s
– Pros and cons
• Focused partnership: Peruvian Centre for
Social Studies (CEPES)
– Prior relationships, trust and mutual knowledge
– CEPES’ role in Peru
– Communication and impact in CEPES
– Recovering a research vocation in CEPES
Seeking impact in ESRC-DfID project:
Social movements and poverty (Peru, S. Africa)
• Project as part of a larger whole: for us, for CEPES
and for PLAAS
• This allows:
– Easy/immediate access to meeting rooms (for sessions
with movements, other researchers, activists,
government)
– Easy access to communication media (print, radio,
video)
– In-country status
– In-country web-presence (http://www.cepes.org.pe)
– Name recognition for interviews
The facilitation of research
• Being part of broader network allows
– Wider discussion of findings (more serious
engagement)
– Participation in a range of fora (policy, academic,
social movement, informal)
– Easier in-country publication/launch events/public
debate
• But – securing substantive impacts is not simple,
nor may it even be ‘known’
Immediate issues
• Language (in our case Spanish)
– In-country publication (eg. Spanish language book,
book launch and public debate)
– Bi-lingual web-sites
• www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/socialmovements/es
• www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/andes/es
• Organizations and networks
– PARTNERING and partnering
• Choosing partners
– Criteria and implications for how research (and we)
are positioned
– Who chooses who?
Underlying issues
•
Impact is not a-political
– Public policy impacts / civil society-activist impacts
– “Do good” impacts / “do no harm” precautionary principle impacts
– Public debate as impact
– You shall be known by the impacts you wish to have and the debates you seek to foster
•
Knowledge is dynamic
– Formal research projects produce results which are realised through relationships
– As knowledge is placed, it is amended and reinterpreted
– Knowledge is not owned, nor is it neutral – but it may be attributed
– Knowledge is a form of power – and our actions expose, legitimate and represent
•
Project specific relations are a very limited contribution
– Embedding oneself for the long term
– Institutionalization issues
• Financing - project funding to “core” funding
• Accountability (to whom, for what)
•
University (dis)incentives
– Bureaucracy
– What is validated and what is not (promotions)
9
National
University of
Lesotho
ACTIVE DISSEMINATION FOR
DEVELOPMENT IMPACT:
Challenges to building capacity through a DFIDESRC research project in Southern Africa
Dr Elsbeth Robson, Dr Nicola Ansell,
Dr Lorraine van Blerk, Dr Flora Hajdu
e.robson@africa-online.net
DSA Conference, London 3 November 2012
10
The Project - Averting ‘New Variant Famine’ in Southern Africa:
Building Food-Secure Livelihoods with AIDS-affected young people
• Aim -To generate new, in-depth
understanding of how AIDS, in interaction
with other factors, is impacting on the
livelihood activities, opportunities and
choices of young people in rural southern
Africa, in order to support the development
of policies and interventions that will
enhance AIDS-affected young people's
prospects of achieving sustainable, foodsecure livelihoods in Malawi, Lesotho and
across southern Africa, thereby addressing
the first MDG of reducing extreme poverty
and hunger.
• Intended beneficiaries - AIDS-affected
young people living in southern African
countries experiencing recurrent food
crises .
11
Steering Groups &
Dissemination
Village
level
• National Steering Group
meetings (3 in each country)
- govt,
NGOs, UN, donors, academics
• Dissemination activities with
young people, villagers, regional
and national policy makers &
implementers (Aug & Sept 2008)
• Outputs
Academic papers (local &
international journals), conference
presentations (local & international),
policy briefings, reports, website
Regional
level
National
level
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Challenges to Capacity Building
• What do we mean by
Capacity?
• Challenges to capacity
building collaboration:
• Poor infrastructure in
•
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•
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host countries
Lack of shared priorities
Funding limitations
Mortality rates high
Mobility/ brain drain
Lucy Chipeta,
University of Malawi
R.I.P.
13
Conclusions
‘...very limited collaboration exists between insiders and
outsiders and there seem to be two parallel tracks of
knowledge generation. We are therefore missing an
opportunity to get knowledge generation right’
Yeboah (2011)
Thank-you for listening
Project website
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/shssc/research/chg/research-projects/avertingnew-variant-famine
Reflections on the UK-Ghana
partnership in a Child Mobility
project funded under the ESRCDFID Joint Scheme
Albert Abane and Gina Porter
University of Cape Coast, Ghana; Durham University, UK
DSA, London, 3 November 2012
Children, transport and mobility in subSaharan Africa: Project Collaborators
• Lead Institution: Durham University, UK [Anthropology]
• Collaborating Institutions:
– Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi [Anthropology, Geography]
– Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa [Transport
Engineering, Planning]
– University of Cape Coast, Ghana [Geography, Education]
– International Forum for Rural Transport & Development
[Communication, Dissemination]
• Collaborators:
UK: Gina Porter, Kate Hampshire
Ghana: Albert Abane, Augustine Tanle
Malawi: Alister Munthali, Elsbeth Robson,
South Africa: Mac Mashiri
+ over 20 RAs + 70 ‘child’ researchers
The research project
• 3-country child mobility and transport study:
Ghana, Malawi, South Africa
• Focus principally on daily physical mobility of
9-18 year-olds
• 24 research sites [2 regions per country]
• Adult researcher strand: mixed methods
[qualitative + survey]
• 70 ‘child’ researchers: findings feed into and
help shape adult research design
Building a research partnership and capacity:
Ghana experience
•
Advantage of a long-established relationship [individuals and
institutions] - Links between UCC Ghana and Durham from 1990s
•
The project builds on prior preliminary joint study with child
researchers in Ghana [N.B. benefits from UCC’s earlier Education focus]
•
Joint field pilot + field reviews in all 8 sites to promote collaboration
and interdisciplinarity
– Joint support to RAs in field training
– trial new methods e.g. mobile ethnographies as a tool in mobilities
research
– explore key issues together
•
Value of residential field work for promoting research partnerships and
capacity building
•
Teaching inputs and joint writing for publication N.B. 1 term spent by
Kate Hampshire at UCC supports Ghana RAs writing + special issue
http://www.biosocsoc.org/sbha/previous_issues/sbha_vol_76_2011_1
special_edition.html
•
New links and joint writing with other African institutions
Approaches to dissemination and impact in Ghana
• Country Consultative Group from inception [Ministries, NGOs,
CBOs, police, transport union teachers, academics etc.]
• Collaboration with IFRTD for wider policy/practitioner
dissemination
• Young researchers’ own booklet [2000 copies to ministries,
schools, communities in Ghana ]
• Academic papers + joint publications with international
collaborators
• Regional workshop with Ghana Education Services + headteachers on School lateness policies
• Collaboration with UCC Institute of Education + GES Teacher
Education re school lateness, local boarding, road safety, etc.
• Collaboration with GES + National Communications Authority
etc. re youth, virtual mobility and responsible phone use