1. Calestous Juma Kennedy School of Government 23 October 2003
Knowledge for Development Seminar, Center for International Development
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
October 23, 2003
KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA Building Local Policy Research Institutions
Calestous Juma
Kennedy School of Government
23 October 2003

2. Research counts
The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is a policy research institution which was established in 1988 in Nairobi, Kenya, to undertake policy research and related activities on the application of science and technology to sustainable development.

3. Contents Conventional approaches A systems alternative
Enter the skeptics… with Salieri and Brutus
Institutional design
Modus operandi
Policy innovations: a sample
Challenges
Lessons learnt

4. Conventional approaches
Internal research
Resident advisors
Consultants
Public decrees
Policy failure

5. A systems alternative
Policy research
Agenda-setting
Systems approach

6. Enter the skeptics… with Salieri and Brutus
Audience
Political repression
Lack of capacity
Precedence
Competition

7. Institutional design Feasibility ‘study’: working groups
Identity: analysis, not advocacy
Mission: agenda-setting
Resource base: ideas and funding
Structure: flexibility and redundancy
Scope: global and local
Approach: entrepreneurial

8. Modus operandi Agenda-setting: topicality Scanning global trends
Research and publication
Open review: ‘collaborative criticism’
Policy consultations and debate
Policy formulation and codification
Institutional design and management
International partnerships
Follow-up activities

9. Policy innovations: a sample
International
Biological diversity
Climate change
Environmentally-sound technologies
Biotechnology
National
Constitutional reform
Intellectual property rights
Civil society
Land use

10. Challenges Choice of issues: agenda-setting Credit: deference
Funding: conflict and cooperation
Management: flexibility and routine
Scope of work: local and global
Position on issues: non-partisan
Capacity development: three levels
Conflict of interest: separation
Leadership: succession and continuity

11. Lessons learnt Agenda-setting: entry point
Interactive learning: ecology of knowledge
Institutional design: convening node
Institutional diversity: space and time
Continuity and change: inter-generational

12. Conclusion http://www.acts.or.ke/ Knowledge ecologies
Uncertainty management
Time and irreversibility
Heraclitus