Lessons Learnt from Promoting Knowledge Production and Utilization in Low and Middle Income Countries

• In Event: The rise of knowledge brokers: The translation of research evidence into policy and planning - part 2

Proposal

IDRC has supported applied research for development for over 50 years, primarily funding Southern research organizations. Our learning informs the ways we attempt to bridge research and policy from end-to-end in research programming – from the formulation of research priorities, the design of projects, their implementation, and through to their evaluation. The overall finding is that while there is always a need to translate research evidence to users in policy and program spheres, that bridging can be more direct when research is done by actors in and from the country contexts in which research is intended to have an impact. Even so, research programming requires clear but flexible knowledge mobilization strategies, resources, results frameworks, and incentives to support this.

IDRC is applying, and expanding, this learning through the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), a joint initiative between IDRC and GPE.

KIX links evidence, research, and innovation directly with education stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries. Four regional hubs link education system stakeholders across borders for direct peer exchange and south-south learning. The hubs generate research, offer opportunities for professional development, and engagement with national, regional and global expertise. Shared national policy priorities identified through the hubs inform applied, engaged research that is also funded through KIX, mostly undertaken by Southern research organizations. Recognizing that there are many valuable innovations in education but that few are brought to scale, one of KIX's research emphasis is about how to scale their impact in participating countries. Projects engage national stakeholders in knowledge mobilization and capacity building such that the research can be used, and they are beginning to feed results back into the hubs. Together, KIX is developing new insight into our learning about bridging research and policy - mobilizing research for scaling impact.

Author

• Tricia Wind, International Development Research Centre