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The strength of contextual knowledge for sector analysis and planning

Wed, March 13, 9:45 to 11:15am, Hyatt Regency Miami, Floor: Third Level, Pearson 2

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In 2020, the International Development Research Centre launched an ambitious initiative with funding from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE): The KIX (Knowledge and Innovation Exchange) Initiative is devoted to surface, amplify and disseminate local policy expertise for solving policy challenges in education systems of GPE partner countries. Four regional hubs help implement the KIX Initiative with a plethora of activities that strengthens local policy expertise and facilitates peer exchange among policy researchers, analysts, and decision-makers across the GPE partner countries of one region.

The four hubs are :
• Africa 19, comprising 19 countries in East, Southern and West Africa
• Africa 21, comprising 21 countries in West and Central Africa and Indian Ocean
• EMAP, comprising 35 countries in Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Asia and the Pacific regions.
• LAC, comprising 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean

The four different hubs have chosen different approaches to promote the use of locally produced research evidence for strengthening national education systems. In this panel, each Hub focuses on one knowledge product, generated as part of the hub’s activity, to reflect on how it benefited from local, contextual knowledge and contributed to policy debates in the country. The speakers will also address the challenges of being local policy experts that do not necessarily have the reputation, funding and backing of international organisations and sometimes are seen as partial by their in-country counterparts. Rather than merely show-casing studies produced in the four hubs by national policy experts, the panel invites reflection and self-reflection on the role of contextual expertise in the production of policy briefs, scoping studies, and other policy-relevant knowledge products.
Related to this first aspect, the first set of questions addressed by all speakers is the following:
• How do we, as national policy experts, establish credibility in our research and what strategies do we use to make ourselves heard?
• What was the role of the KIX hub to amplify our voices and expertise?

A few comments on the conceptual background of the panel may be in order here. The knowledge inequity between experts from the Global South and the Global North has generated unjust and ineffective practices in international cooperation. Regardless of their ranks and professional degree, more often than not, international organisations tend to hire national researchers and experts as translators, facilitators, moderators, and implementers. The ubiquitous talk about capacity-building is patronising and eclipses all other advantages of local experts, including analytical and interpretive skills, that are indispensable for high-quality policy research and relevant, evidence-based policy advice. Nowadays, the awareness of knowledge inequity has been revitalised in decolonial studies. However, what a decolonial approach really entails in actual practice, and what opportunities and challenges emerge if the approach is systematically pursued in international cooperation is seriously understudied (Soudien, 2022; Takayama, Sripakesh & Connell, 2017).

The second set of questions addressed by the speakers is the following:
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a local policy analyst and/or advisor?
• Reflecting on the knowledge product developed as part of the KIX Initiative, what aspect of it was “contextual” and “context-specific,” that is, could not have been included in the study if it were not for the local expertise that was used to design and carry out the study?

In some regards, the four KIX hubs see themselves as knowledge brokers that support national researchers and policy advisors to bridge the gap between science and politics. The regional KIX hubs promote the use of research evidence for policy and planning by synthesising, “translating,” and disseminating research evidence (both global and national research) for policy and planning purposes (see Author, forthcoming).

The third and final set of questions addressed by the speakers is the following:
• Is the expectation that policy and planning decisions are made based on data and empirical evidence?
• Can the belief in numbers and research evidence be locally adapted to suit local needs and expertise and how can KIX Hubs and other international initiatives support it?

To reiterate, in each presentation, the speaker(s) will speak for 20 minutes, 10 minutes of which are reserved for the knowledge product produced as part of the KIX initiative and 10 minutes for reflection/self-reflection on the three sets of questions, listed in an exemplary manner above.

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