ESRC-DFID Strategic Advisory Team Panel

The ESRC-DFID Strategic Advisory Team has secured a panel at the DSA conference, being held this year in London on Saturday 3rd November. The panel, entitled “Social Science Research and Development Impact”, will feature a number of award holders who will reflect on their projects to stimulate discussion and debate.

Abstract

Research about and for international development is increasing in complexity, scale and scope. This reflects many drivers: the changing size of aid budgets, new modalities for the delivery of development, the demands of policymakers, emerging technologies, new challenges, new priorities, new partnerships, new targets and more nuanced and sophisticated approaches to and critiques of the practice of development, processes of change and the evaluation and attribution of impact (to name but a few). Research reflects both the increasing complexity of what development is and an ever more urgent need to accurately assess what development does. Neither of these challenges are easy, of course.This proposed panel aims to reflect on the emerging and evolving role of interdisciplinary social science within development by drawing on Principal Investigators and researchers who have been funded by the ESRC-DFID Joint Scheme for Research on International Development (Poverty Alleviation). The Joint Scheme was launched in 2005, and has now funded five rounds of research in two Phases. The last round of Phase 2 was launched in July 2011 for projects to commence during 2012. The first five rounds of the Joint Scheme have funded 83 projects involving researchers from 25 countries. Research has been conducted in 47 countries so far, primarily in Africa and South Asia.The ESRC-DFID Joint Scheme represents a significant body of social science research funded with the explicit aim of generating a developmental impact. As such it provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the relationship between social science and development policy and practice.  This proposed panel will draw together Principal Investigators and researchers (representing around three or four projects drawn from the 83 funded project, who will reflect on key issues for 15 minutes each) who will be selected to represent a selection of geographic areas, disciplines, methods and research problems funded under the scheme. The panel will be chaired and framed by the panel conveners, who were appointed in 2010 as a strategic advisory team to the scheme, to advise on key issues such as impact, capacity building and building synergies across projects. This approach will capture something of the dynamic between the donors who fund the scheme and the researchers funded under the scheme and in doing so will shed light on a further relationship between social science research and international development. The panel will reflect in particular on these key dimensions, which are related to varying degrees: Impact – Impact, what it means, how it is measured, how it relates to academic research, has gained increasing prominence and traction in development studies debates. Indeed it is not just in development studies where the notion of 'impact' has increasingly shaped research and how its success or failure may be framed. Impact has not just problematised within academia, its relationship to policymaking is under constant evolution. Systematic reviews, controlled trials and other sorts of experimental approaches highlight the search for more robust new knowledge on which to shape policy. New approaches to impact, probably most notably the IDRC's Outcome Mapping approach, attempt to develop a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between new knowledge, learning and impact. Within the ESRC-DFID Joint Scheme there has been an evolution in the concept of what research impact within funded project should mean and this will allow an avenue to reflect on the relationship between social science research and development 'impact'.Capacity – Capacity, in the form of possessing the conceptual and methodological tools to engage with complex research agendas and the form of developing suitable networks and partnerships through which to undertake international research and generate impact, is another central concern of this proposed panel. Increasingly interdisciplinary approaches require more complex methodologies, broader knowledge bases and possibly local research partners. This poses both intellectual and practical issues that need to be engaged with. How can one gain appropriate analytical skills and generate local knowledge from the perspective of the researcher. How can one build the capacity of southern researchers to lead research activities, shape research agendas and ultimately capture research funding from the perspective of many funding bodies. How can one build capacity to translate research findings and new knowledge into policy, practice and impact, to varying degrees from the perspectives of all actors. Capacity is a multidimensional issue that underpins almost all aspects of social science research and international development studies and this panel can make an important contribution to reflecting on and consolidating a broad range of expertise and experience. In sum, this panel will provide an opportunity to generate discussion and debate around issues that affect development studies in all its hues and approaches. The panel will use the rubric of the ESRC-DFID Joint Scheme to draw together research diversity to reflect upon common issues which may contribute to the impact of completed research, the undertaking of current research and the conceptualisation of research yet to be undertaken.

Speaker

Various

Hosted by

Development Studies Association

Venue

Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL.

Contact

We would encourage anyone who is interested in the ESRC-DFID Joint Scheme to attend the panel. Please note that you will need to register for the conference which requires DSA membership