Pub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2022-05-17DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00526-0
David Lewis, M Feisal Rahman, Revocatus Twinomuhangi, Shababa Haque, Nazmul Huq, Saleemul Huq, Lars Ribbe, Asif Ishtiaque
Responding effectively to climate crisis requires strong science-policy links to be put in place. Past research on the research-policy interface indicates longstanding challenges that have become more acute in the case of climate science, since this requires multi-disciplinary approaches and faces distinctive political challenges in linking knowledge with policy. What can be learned from the experiences of university-based researchers seeking to influence policy as they try to operate in the brokering space? With this in mind, an empirical study was designed to capture the detailed views and experiences of forty researchers in four universities across four countries-Bangladesh, Germany, Uganda and UK. It found a wide range of different researcher attitudes to policy engagement, diverse methods of engaging, a preference for working with government and civil society over private sector policy actors, and a perceived need for more university support. The findings suggest a need to rethink conditions for engagement to create spaces for knowledge exchange and cooperation that can contribute to policies for societal transformation. More attention also needs to be paid to interdisciplinary research approaches, improving research connections with private sector actors, and strengthening university research links with local communities. Finally, the position of university based researchers in the Global South will require strengthening to improve North-South knowledge exchange, capacity development, and incentives for policy engagement.
{"title":"University-Based Researchers as Knowledge Brokers for Climate Policies and Action.","authors":"David Lewis, M Feisal Rahman, Revocatus Twinomuhangi, Shababa Haque, Nazmul Huq, Saleemul Huq, Lars Ribbe, Asif Ishtiaque","doi":"10.1057/s41287-022-00526-0","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41287-022-00526-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Responding effectively to climate crisis requires strong science-policy links to be put in place. Past research on the research-policy interface indicates longstanding challenges that have become more acute in the case of climate science, since this requires multi-disciplinary approaches and faces distinctive political challenges in linking knowledge with policy. What can be learned from the experiences of university-based researchers seeking to influence policy as they try to operate in the brokering space? With this in mind, an empirical study was designed to capture the detailed views and experiences of forty researchers in four universities across four countries-Bangladesh, Germany, Uganda and UK. It found a wide range of different researcher attitudes to policy engagement, diverse methods of engaging, a preference for working with government and civil society over private sector policy actors, and a perceived need for more university support. The findings suggest a need to rethink conditions for engagement to create spaces for knowledge exchange and cooperation that can contribute to policies for societal transformation. More attention also needs to be paid to interdisciplinary research approaches, improving research connections with private sector actors, and strengthening university research links with local communities. Finally, the position of university based researchers in the Global South will require strengthening to improve North-South knowledge exchange, capacity development, and incentives for policy engagement.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9112648/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9879446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00515-3
Anh Huu Nguyen, Thinh Gia Hoang, Duy Thanh Nguyen, Loan Quynh Thi Nguyen, Duong Thuy Doan
Given the increasing importance of green bond as the main funding source for the Sustainable Development Goals, the green bond is an emerging concept in the region of Southeast Asia. In addition, the concurrent Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruption to the development of green bond around the world. This research explores the current development status of the green bond in Southeast Asian countries. A total of thirty-two semi-structured interviews were held with capital market participants in Southeast Asian countries. The results highlight barriers, opportunities, and regulation difficulties, and expected growth for the development of the green bond market. This research is concluded by indicating several propositions that can be tested in the future to generalize the findings from this work. We thus extend the knowledge of green bond in the financial markets of Southeast Asian countries, which also delivers implications for practitioners and policy-makers regarding the development of green bond in Southeast Asian countries.
{"title":"The Development of Green Bond in Developing Countries: Insights from Southeast Asia Market Participants.","authors":"Anh Huu Nguyen, Thinh Gia Hoang, Duy Thanh Nguyen, Loan Quynh Thi Nguyen, Duong Thuy Doan","doi":"10.1057/s41287-022-00515-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-022-00515-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Given the increasing importance of green bond as the main funding source for the Sustainable Development Goals, the green bond is an emerging concept in the region of Southeast Asia. In addition, the concurrent Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruption to the development of green bond around the world. This research explores the current development status of the green bond in Southeast Asian countries. A total of thirty-two semi-structured interviews were held with capital market participants in Southeast Asian countries. The results highlight barriers, opportunities, and regulation difficulties, and expected growth for the development of the green bond market. This research is concluded by indicating several propositions that can be tested in the future to generalize the findings from this work. We thus extend the knowledge of green bond in the financial markets of Southeast Asian countries, which also delivers implications for practitioners and policy-makers regarding the development of green bond in Southeast Asian countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8860372/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10529297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1057/s41287-023-00574-0
Sarah Chapman, Adiilah Boodhoo, Carren Duffy, Suki Goodman, Maria Michalopoulou
The United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) aimed to address global challenges to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals through 12 interdisciplinary research hubs. This research documents key lessons learned around working with Theory of Change (ToC) to guide Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) within these complex research for development hubs. Interviews and document reviews were conducted in ten of the research hubs. The results revealed that only one hub invested in an explicit visual system mapping approach, and that funder timelines, budget constraints and issues with capacity and expertise limited the application of these approaches across all hubs. In contrast, many hubs attempted to deal with visual complexity by means of ether constructing multiple, nested ToCs, or a conscious simplification of complexity through reducing their ToC towards a straightforward and uncomplicated chain model or spherical model. While the former approach had some value, most hubs struggled to find capacity to support the full articulation of nested ToCs. In contrast, the latter approach resulted in ToCs which lacked detail or mechanism articulation, but which nevertheless were often 'fit for purpose' in ensuring effective communication and coherence across diverse stakeholders and sub-projects. We conclude that in instances where the reporting, funding and management cycles of complex research for development programmes cannot be adapted to properly support learning-based approaches to ToC development, imposing simplicity in the ToC might be fit for purpose. This might also be preferable to more complex visual approaches that are only partially realised.
{"title":"Theory of Change in Complex Research for Development Programmes: Challenges and Solutions from the Global Challenges Research Fund.","authors":"Sarah Chapman, Adiilah Boodhoo, Carren Duffy, Suki Goodman, Maria Michalopoulou","doi":"10.1057/s41287-023-00574-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-023-00574-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) aimed to address global challenges to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals through 12 interdisciplinary research hubs. This research documents key lessons learned around working with Theory of Change (ToC) to guide Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) within these complex research for development hubs. Interviews and document reviews were conducted in ten of the research hubs. The results revealed that only one hub invested in an explicit visual system mapping approach, and that funder timelines, budget constraints and issues with capacity and expertise limited the application of these approaches across all hubs. In contrast, many hubs attempted to deal with visual complexity by means of ether constructing multiple, nested ToCs, or a conscious simplification of complexity through reducing their ToC towards a straightforward and uncomplicated chain model or spherical model. While the former approach had some value, most hubs struggled to find capacity to support the full articulation of nested ToCs. In contrast, the latter approach resulted in ToCs which lacked detail or mechanism articulation, but which nevertheless were often 'fit for purpose' in ensuring effective communication and coherence across diverse stakeholders and sub-projects. We conclude that in instances where the reporting, funding and management cycles of complex research for development programmes cannot be adapted to properly support learning-based approaches to ToC development, imposing simplicity in the ToC might be fit for purpose. This might also be preferable to more complex visual approaches that are only partially realised.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9974048/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9557464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2022-04-13DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00529-x
Emmanuel Kwablah Apiors, Aya Suzuki
This study conducts a randomised control trial to offer a technical workshop and examine whether providing information about the full range of services on the mobile money platform would increase mobile money usage, by taking a case of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. We find a significant positive impact of mobile money education on the recent usage of mobile money for transactions. However, no significant evidence of the workshop was found on new mobile money account ownership, or on the share of transactions transmitted through mobile money. Furthermore, weak and volatile outcomes were observed as impacts on remittances after the interventions. We discuss potential reasons behind the weak effects found.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-022-00529-x.
{"title":"Effects of Mobile Money Education on Mobile Money Usage: Evidence from Ghana.","authors":"Emmanuel Kwablah Apiors, Aya Suzuki","doi":"10.1057/s41287-022-00529-x","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41287-022-00529-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study conducts a randomised control trial to offer a technical workshop and examine whether providing information about the full range of services on the mobile money platform would increase mobile money usage, by taking a case of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. We find a significant positive impact of mobile money education on the recent usage of mobile money for transactions. However, no significant evidence of the workshop was found on new mobile money account ownership, or on the share of transactions transmitted through mobile money. Furthermore, weak and volatile outcomes were observed as impacts on remittances after the interventions. We discuss potential reasons behind the weak effects found.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-022-00529-x.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9005914/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9895912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Achieving impact through research for development programmes (R4D) requires engagement with diverse stakeholders across the research, development and policy divides. Understanding how such programmes support the emergence of outcomes, therefore, requires a focus on the relational aspects of engagement and collaboration. Increasingly, evaluation of large research collaborations is employing social network analysis (SNA), making use of its relational view of causation. In this paper, we use three applications of SNA within similar large R4D programmes, through our work within evaluation of three Interidsiplinary Hubs of the Global Challenges Research Fund, to explore its potential as an evaluation method. Our comparative analysis shows that SNA can uncover the structural dimensions of interactions within R4D programmes and enable learning about how networks evolve through time. We reflect on common challenges across the cases including navigating different forms of bias that result from incomplete network data, multiple interpretations across scales, and the challenges of making causal inference and related ethical dilemmas. We conclude with lessons on the methodological and operational dimensions of using SNA within monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems that aim to support both learning and accountability.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-023-00576-y.
{"title":"Revealing the Relational Mechanisms of Research for Development Through Social Network Analysis.","authors":"Marina Apgar, Guillaume Fournie, Barbara Haesler, Grace Lyn Higdon, Leah Kenny, Annalena Oppel, Evelyn Pauls, Matthew Smith, Mieke Snijder, Daan Vink, Mazeda Hossain","doi":"10.1057/s41287-023-00576-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-023-00576-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Achieving impact through research for development programmes (R4D) requires engagement with diverse stakeholders across the research, development and policy divides. Understanding how such programmes support the emergence of outcomes, therefore, requires a focus on the relational aspects of engagement and collaboration. Increasingly, evaluation of large research collaborations is employing social network analysis (SNA), making use of its relational view of causation. In this paper, we use three applications of SNA within similar large R4D programmes, through our work within evaluation of three Interidsiplinary Hubs of the Global Challenges Research Fund, to explore its potential as an evaluation method. Our comparative analysis shows that SNA can uncover the structural dimensions of interactions within R4D programmes and enable learning about how networks evolve through time. We reflect on common challenges across the cases including navigating different forms of bias that result from incomplete network data, multiple interpretations across scales, and the challenges of making causal inference and related ethical dilemmas. We conclude with lessons on the methodological and operational dimensions of using SNA within monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems that aim to support both learning and accountability.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-023-00576-y.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9875764/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9195836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2022-03-12DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00519-z
K Subramanian, M Bavinck, J Scholtens, H M Hapke, A Jyotishi
Urban sites gather poverty in particular locations and often require bulk food system approaches for addressing prevalent food security and nutrition needs. The food systems that service them are, however, characterized by perishability and large irregularities in supply. Seafood is currently recognized as contributing in a major way to food security and nutrition, and it is to assessing the role of wholesale markets in meeting the needs of the urban poor that this paper is directed. It zooms in on the city of Chennai, India, where an estimated 40% of the population is considered poor and marine fish plays a crucial role in diets. Building on one-and-a-half years of field research in the pre-COVID-19 period, the paper analyses the performance of one of the city's largest fish wholesale markets, Vanagaram, in relation to the four commonly recognized pillars of food security. Results demonstrate how urban food systems function as major suppliers of fish (and other food items) to thousands of low- and middle-income households. Most importantly, this case study demonstrates the crucial role that is played by wholesale markets in merging low-price fish supplies from different geographic regions and thereby ensuring food security of poorer inhabitants.
{"title":"How Seafood Wholesale Markets Matter for Urban Food Security: Evidence from Chennai, India.","authors":"K Subramanian, M Bavinck, J Scholtens, H M Hapke, A Jyotishi","doi":"10.1057/s41287-022-00519-z","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41287-022-00519-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Urban sites gather poverty in particular locations and often require bulk food system approaches for addressing prevalent food security and nutrition needs. The food systems that service them are, however, characterized by perishability and large irregularities in supply. Seafood is currently recognized as contributing in a major way to food security and nutrition, and it is to assessing the role of wholesale markets in meeting the needs of the urban poor that this paper is directed. It zooms in on the city of Chennai, India, where an estimated 40% of the population is considered poor and marine fish plays a crucial role in diets. Building on one-and-a-half years of field research in the pre-COVID-19 period, the paper analyses the performance of one of the city's largest fish wholesale markets, Vanagaram, in relation to the four commonly recognized pillars of food security. Results demonstrate how urban food systems function as major suppliers of fish (and other food items) to thousands of low- and middle-income households. Most importantly, this case study demonstrates the crucial role that is played by wholesale markets in merging low-price fish supplies from different geographic regions and thereby ensuring food security of poorer inhabitants.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8917331/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9525476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00568-4
Fateh Belaîd, Sofien Tiba
Using monthly data, this article examines the influence of Covid-19 on poverty, inequality, well-being, and environmental quality for a sample of 14 African economies from 2018 to 2020. To do so, we employ a GMM approach to look at the influence of the pandemic on achieving the SDGs in Africa. According to our empirical findings, the pandemic significantly impacts poverty and pollution levels. The results show also that the pandemic coefficient considerably influences the inequality proxy. Due to social exclusion and inequities, these economies must embrace an integrated socio-economic vision to overcome the multi-faceted pandemic externalities and build more resilient economies..
{"title":"Repercussions the Covid-19 Pandemic on the SDGs Achievement: Is it a New Era for the Development?","authors":"Fateh Belaîd, Sofien Tiba","doi":"10.1057/s41287-022-00568-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-022-00568-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Using monthly data, this article examines the influence of Covid-19 on poverty, inequality, well-being, and environmental quality for a sample of 14 African economies from 2018 to 2020. To do so, we employ a GMM approach to look at the influence of the pandemic on achieving the SDGs in Africa. According to our empirical findings, the pandemic significantly impacts poverty and pollution levels. The results show also that the pandemic coefficient considerably influences the inequality proxy. Due to social exclusion and inequities, these economies must embrace an integrated socio-economic vision to overcome the multi-faceted pandemic externalities and build more resilient economies..</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9744663/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10583962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2023-02-23DOI: 10.1057/s41287-023-00578-w
Mieke Snijder, Rosie Steege, Michelle Callander, Michel Wahome, M Feisal Rahman, Marina Apgar, Sally Theobald, Louise J Bracken, Laura Dean, Bintu Mansaray, Prasanna Saligram, Surekha Garimella, Sophia Arthurs-Hartnett, Robinson Karuga, Adriana Elizabeth Mejía Artieda, Victoria Chengo, Joanes Ateles
The complexity of issues addressed by research for development (R4D) requires collaborations between partners from a range of disciplines and cultural contexts. Power asymmetries within such partnerships may obstruct the fair distribution of resources, responsibilities and benefits across all partners. This paper presents a cross-case analysis of five R4D partnership evaluations, their methods and how they unearthed and addressed power asymmetries. It contributes to the field of R4D partnership evaluations by detailing approaches and methods employed to evaluate these partnerships. Theory-based evaluations deepened understandings of how equitable partnerships contribute to R4D generating impact and centring the relational side of R4D. Participatory approaches that involved all partners in developing and evaluating partnership principles ensured contextually appropriate definitions and a focus on what partners value.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-023-00578-w.
{"title":"How are Research for Development Programmes Implementing and Evaluating Equitable Partnerships to Address Power Asymmetries?","authors":"Mieke Snijder, Rosie Steege, Michelle Callander, Michel Wahome, M Feisal Rahman, Marina Apgar, Sally Theobald, Louise J Bracken, Laura Dean, Bintu Mansaray, Prasanna Saligram, Surekha Garimella, Sophia Arthurs-Hartnett, Robinson Karuga, Adriana Elizabeth Mejía Artieda, Victoria Chengo, Joanes Ateles","doi":"10.1057/s41287-023-00578-w","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41287-023-00578-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The complexity of issues addressed by research for development (R4D) requires collaborations between partners from a range of disciplines and cultural contexts. Power asymmetries within such partnerships may obstruct the fair distribution of resources, responsibilities and benefits across all partners. This paper presents a cross-case analysis of five R4D partnership evaluations, their methods and how they unearthed and addressed power asymmetries. It contributes to the field of R4D partnership evaluations by detailing approaches and methods employed to evaluate these partnerships. Theory-based evaluations deepened understandings of how equitable partnerships contribute to R4D generating impact and centring the relational side of R4D. Participatory approaches that involved all partners in developing and evaluating partnership principles ensured contextually appropriate definitions and a focus on what partners value.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-023-00578-w.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9947878/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9191241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00565-7
Heidi Peterson
Research for development (R4D) funding is increasingly expected to demonstrate value for money (VfM). However, the dominance of positivist approaches to evaluating VfM, such as cost-benefit analysis, do not fully account for the complexity of R4D funds and risk undermining efforts to contribute to transformational development. This paper posits an alternative approach to evaluating VfM, using the UK's Global Challenges Research Fund and the Newton Fund as case studies. Based on a constructivist approach to valuing outcomes, this approach applies a collaboratively developed rubric-based peer review to a sample of projects. This is more appropriate for the complexity of R4D interventions, particularly when considering uncertain and emergent outcomes over a long timeframe. This approach could be adapted to other complex interventions, demonstrating that our options are not merely "CBA or the highway" and there are indeed alternative routes to evaluating VfM.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-022-00565-7.
{"title":"Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) or the Highway? An Alternative Road to Investigating the Value for Money of International Development Research.","authors":"Heidi Peterson","doi":"10.1057/s41287-022-00565-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-022-00565-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research for development (R4D) funding is increasingly expected to demonstrate value for money (VfM). However, the dominance of positivist approaches to evaluating VfM, such as cost-benefit analysis, do not fully account for the complexity of R4D funds and risk undermining efforts to contribute to transformational development. This paper posits an alternative approach to evaluating VfM, using the UK's Global Challenges Research Fund and the Newton Fund as case studies. Based on a constructivist approach to valuing outcomes, this approach applies a collaboratively developed rubric-based peer review to a sample of projects. This is more appropriate for the complexity of R4D interventions, particularly when considering uncertain and emergent outcomes over a long timeframe. This approach could be adapted to other complex interventions, demonstrating that our options are not merely \"CBA or the highway\" and there are indeed alternative routes to evaluating VfM.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41287-022-00565-7.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9589702/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9194797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Large publicly funded programmes of research continue to receive increased investment as interventions aiming to produce impact for the world's poorest and most marginalized populations. At this intersection of research and development, research is expected to contribute to complex processes of societal change. Embracing a co-produced view of impact as emerging along uncertain causal pathways often without predefined outcomes calls for innovation in the use of complexity-aware approaches to evaluation. The papers in this special issue present rich experiences of authors working across sectors and geographies, employing methodological innovation and navigating power as they reconcile tensions. They illustrate the challenges with (i) evaluating performance to meet accountability demands while fostering learning for adaptation; (ii) evaluating prospective theories of change while capturing emergent change; (iii) evaluating internal relational dimensions while measuring external development outcomes; (iv) evaluating across scales: from measuring local level end impact to understanding contributions to systems level change. Taken as a whole, the issue illustrates how the research for development evaluation field is maturing through the experiences of a growing and diverse group of researchers and evaluators as they shift from using narrow accountability instruments to appreciating emergent causal pathways within research for development.
{"title":"Evaluating Research for Development: Innovation to Navigate Complexity.","authors":"Marina Apgar, Mieke Snijder, Grace Lyn Higdon, Sylvia Szabo","doi":"10.1057/s41287-023-00577-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-023-00577-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Large publicly funded programmes of research continue to receive increased investment as interventions aiming to produce impact for the world's poorest and most marginalized populations. At this intersection of research and development, research is expected to contribute to complex processes of societal change. Embracing a co-produced view of impact as emerging along uncertain causal pathways often without predefined outcomes calls for innovation in the use of complexity-aware approaches to evaluation. The papers in this special issue present rich experiences of authors working across sectors and geographies, employing methodological innovation and navigating power as they reconcile tensions. They illustrate the challenges with (i) evaluating performance to meet accountability demands while fostering learning for adaptation; (ii) evaluating prospective theories of change while capturing emergent change; (iii) evaluating internal relational dimensions while measuring external development outcomes; (iv) evaluating across scales: from measuring local level end impact to understanding contributions to systems level change. Taken as a whole, the issue illustrates how the research for development evaluation field is maturing through the experiences of a growing and diverse group of researchers and evaluators as they shift from using narrow accountability instruments to appreciating emergent causal pathways within research for development.</p>","PeriodicalId":47650,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Development Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9976688/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9573162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}