Working better with INGOs on research

Duncan Green, OxfamJune 2011

First, understand your INGO

Why are we interested in research? What do we mean by the word ‘research’ What does good research look like?

Why are we interested in research?

Impact, impact and, er impact – Advocacy and campaigns– Improved programme design and delivery

Otherwise, curiosity in short supply?– Often bad at keeping/conserving/valuing

knowledge

What do we mean by the word ‘research’?

Follows from requirement for impact Narrative > data – telling a story Witnessing Catching the eye of press and decision

makers Clear messages in terms of

– Problems– Solutions

Which can mean dismissive of nuance, complexity or ‘two handed’ experts

What does good research look like?

Relevant to public agendas Good review of literature Strongly rooted in poor people’s experience Tackles issues of power and inequality Clear message on problem and solution Killer facts, stats etc for impact Answers deadly ‘What’s new?’ question

Are INGOs any good at research?

Strengths Rooted in

communities and partners

Commitment to participation and action research

Advocate with policy makers

Excellent comms Spot opportunities

Weaknesses Better at qual than

quant Methodology can

be weak Short attention

span Relations to DC

researchers £ and capacity

How can UKCDS members engage better with INGOs? Encourage co-design from inception That means understanding evolving INGO

thinking (luckily herding should make that relatively easy......)

Immediate (0-3 year) herding on......

A retro theme – hunger and resource constraints

Source: WFP

Global ecological boundaries (cannot be shifted)

Consumption share of those living in poverty

Environmental impact of global consumption Reality

in 2010

7 billion

Global ecological boundaries (cannot be shifted)

Consumption share of those living in poverty

Environmental impact of global consumption Vision

for 2050

9 billion

How well do we understand change?

How Change Happens: steady state– What are our theories of change? How well do we

understand, apply or even acknowledge them? E.g. 1: is social/political change mainly urban or

rural? E.g. 2 Discontinuity and shocks

– Emergence and complexity– How do we plan for/respond to the Arab Spring?

What do we measure and why?

Pressure to prove impact and value for money poses threats and opportunities

Threats: we measure what is easy, not what is important, e.g.

– Rights and power – Volatility and Resilience > stocks and average

flows– Poverty v wellbeing – fear and shame– The unpaid and unvalued world

A new global system is being born

Networks & variable geometry (CSOs as well as nations) We won’t like aspects of G8 -> G20

– growth v aid; space for CSOs and Africa Piecemeal global (and regional) government

– International Finance (Robin Hood, tax havens etc)– Environment (> Climate Change)– Trade and investment– Migration– Knowledge– International Humanitarian Law + ICC – Norms (eg via UN conventions)

Technology

Practices v Products Normally Nice Technologies

– Renewables– Low Carbon Transition– ICT– Water conservation

Normally Nasty ones– Geoengineering– Nano– GM (+ nice biotech, eg markers)– Bad medium tech, eg foetal scanners

Gender and almost anything

Almost total lack of disaggregated data e.g. Women in agriculture

Caring economy and its links to the formal economy still largely ignored

Longer term herding likely on

The end of North-South distinctions in– Aging– Urbanization– Domestic Taxation– Social Protection/welfare state– Mental Health– Disability– Obesity/non communicable disease

How well do we understand poverty?

Voices of the poor: ill-being v poverty Multidimensionality beyond health and

education: what about shame and fear? Multidimensional inequality The importance of volatility

– Prevention: smoothing mechanisms– Cure: social protection, countercyclicality

Suggestions for UKCDS members: getting to the grassroots Access to communities works best if The research is relevant to the people and

partners (e.g. Testing new approaches through action research)

The research is properly discussed at draft stage and dissemination locally on publication

Time and direct costs are properly funded You need buy in at country level, where staff

may see things very differently from INGO HQ

Suggestions for UKCDS members:Involve NGOs from the outset Do consult NGOs at the outset and discuss

overlap between priorities Do think about building NGO and partner

research capacity Don’t decide the agenda and then try and

persuade/buy INGOs Don’t say ‘you can do the voices of the poor

bit’ Don’t just see INGOs as a channel to

disseminate research

The Prize

Constant and productive interchange between funders, HEIs and NGOs– Create incentives for better linking between

the 3 groups– Focus on impact and relevance– Build space for collective reflection on

research priorities among NGOs– Built NGOs capacity to understand,

commission and use research (as well as do some)

Thank you! For more random thoughts

From Poverty to Power blog on oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/