HONEST PROSPER NGOWI; MZUMBE UNIVERSITY DAR ES SALAAM 1 Quality of Policy-relevant Research in the African Context: Participatory Policy Research Perspectives 1

Introduction and Context  A number of researches are conducted on and in Africa  Few policy-relevant research works in Africa  There is inadequate participatory research practices  Supply – rather than demand-driven policy researches dominate  Results: Poor quality, little usefull policy researches  Participatory policy research: Among solutions to improve quality and usefullness of policy research

Participatory Policy Research  Involves policy researchers on one hand and policy makers and policy users on the other at all reseach cycle phases  Is a policy-demand-driven rather than researcher- supply driven research process  Lack of participatory research practices leads to poor quality and poor usefullness of policy researches

Towards Participatory Policy Research Towards Participatory Policy Research  Involve researchers and policy makers and users at all reseach stages: –Conceptualization and development of research themes and topics –Call for research proposals –Evaluation of research proposals –Implementation of research: Questions to Dissemination –M&E of research processes and outputs –Disseminations: What, How, when, where: Policy-friendl?

Issues of Concern  Participatory policy researches are short of supply  Supply-driven rather than demand-driven research processes dominate  Level of research funding may be among the causes of the problem

Ways Forward for quality and usefull policy research  Dedicated efforts for participatory policy research processes/cycle are important  Measurement of policy research quality should include its participatory nature  Policy research funding should demand and provide for participatory policy research in the whole research cycle/value chain  Walking the talks is the change-maker

The End Thank You 