In-situ capacity building for telecom reform in Asia - next steps Sujata Gamage August 7, 2007 LIRNEasia, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Objective of CPRsouth The conference aims to provide a forum for senior, junior and mid-career scholars to meet face-to-face and exchange ideas, establish networking opportunities and improve the quality of their scholarly work, in order to facilitate the long-term objective of fostering the next generation of active scholars and in-situ experts capable of contributing to ICT policy and regulatory reform in the region.

Strategy CPRsouth QUALITY Identify experts on the basis of quality of their research PRESENCE Increase the Web presence of the experts RELEVANCE Bring the experts and their work to the attention of the policymakers/operators

Status CPRsouth – 2007 QUALITY Very little leeway in affecting quality, unless there is a concerted field building effort. We have to work with what we get from universities PRESENCE 80% of Full-texts of papers by the CPRsouth community* are present on the Web; half of them have abstracts with the full text avaialble for a fee. RELEVANCE Focus of this presentation Those who have written one or more papers related to telecom reform in Asia, up to 2005

Reassessing Strategy for 2007 What can we learn from literature on impact of research in other applications?

Types of Applications and desired impact (work in progress) Technical innovations in manufacturing and services Technical/Policy solid waste or air quality problems Policy improving the lives of people through their better use of ICTS or better access to health care SE&M: Science, Engineering and Management

Types of expertise SE&M INTENSIVE In situ SE&M experts capable of contributing to the growth of manufacturing and services in the region SE&M INTENSIVE with POLICY KNOW-HOW In situ SE&M experts with policy know-how capable of contributing the resolution of, say, solid waste or air quality problems in the region POLICY INTENSIVE in-situ policy experts capable of contributing to the improving of, say, lives of people in Asia through their use of ICTS or access to health care SE&M: Science, Engineering and Management

Relevance to technical applications Measured by inputs/outputs Percent industry funding received Rate of patenting and licensing Citations in the patent literature Rate of industry start-ups Extensive literature on knowledge to innovation in manufacturing (Ben Martin, Keith Pavitt, Jonathan Katz, Daina HicKs and others from Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex; Diana Hicks, from the Georgia Institute of Technology; Caroline Wagenr from RAND/GWU other EU scholars; MIT? Literature on services is emerging Innovations systems theory () Market forces v. Industrial policy debate (xx v. Romer)

Relevance to technical/policy applications Measured by inputs The scientific status of the research Its ability to address primary environmental concerns It is accepted that relevance depends on the policy environment (i.e. position of modeled environmental issues on the political agenda) ASSESSING THE POLICY RELEVANCE OF REGIONAL AIR QUALITY MODELS T. Holloway. Columbia Earth Institute, Columbia U;

Relevance to policy applications Measured by how well the work by the experts relate to the policy environment Answers are being sought to the [policy] questions at hand? Intended users identified ? Means to reach them identified too? BENSING Jozien M. (1) ; CARTS-VERHALLEN Wilma M. C. M. (2) ; DEKKER Joost (3) ; DELNOIJ Diana M. J. (2) ; GROENEWEGEN Peter P. (2003). Doing the right thing and doing it right: Toward a framework for assessing the policy relevance of health services research. International journal of technology assessment in health, vol. 19, no4, pp [9 page(s) (article)] (19 ref.)

Relevance by type of application (summary) Technical  SE&M expertise required.  Quality, Presence and Relevance of research can be measured, more or less Technical/policy  SE&M expertise and policy know-how required.  Quality and Presence can be assessed but impact difficult to measure Policy  Both policy and advocacy expertise required  Presence can be assessed but Quality and Relevance are difficult to measure; Quality and Relevance linked. SE&M: Science, Engineering and Management

More on policy advocacy Edward Said  Speaking truth to power Speaking truth to power is no idealism: It is carefully weighing the alternatives, picking the right one, and then intelligently representing it where it can do the most good and cause the right change (Edward Said (1994), Representations of the Intellectual: The Reith Lectures)

Lessons for CPRsouth…. In situ policy experts should be skilled in both policy and advocacy. We can not expect individuals from knowledge institutions to fill that role? (except in a rare case or two?) Institutions such as LIRNEasia are better positioned by mission, than knowledge institutions, to distill and present the scholarly research to policymakers. Are we doing that?

Dual mission organizations Linking knowledge to practice Organizations with dual mission (knowledge/practice) as bridges? Knowledge Bridging can occur through (a) the use of university research to strengthen policy arguments (b) facilitating pass-trough of personnel from knowledge to practice and vice versa. Practice

Conclusion Research from universities and research institutes have to be relevant to dual mission organizations such as LIRNEasia CPRsouth Web page should archive research documents for the benefit of  dual mission organizations and  occasional policy intellectuals from the knowledge or practice domains

Questions for LIRNEasians How much of the research that came out of the knowledge mapping exercise was used by you to strengthen the arguments made in the TRE, BoP and other policy relevant work done in the past? If those research work are were not useful what would be useful? How should CPRsouth be designed for better use by you and others like you?