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How
can the design, assessment and developmental impact of research
on the poor be improved in the fisheries sector? This was
the question considered by programme management staff, researchers
and other stakeholders at a joint Fish Genetics Research Programme
and Aquaculture Research Programme workshop in Hanoi. The
Workshop Report highlights how by drawing
on experience in the fisheries sector and adding insights
from agriculture, economics, and social development, the workshop
identified eleven key lessons:
- The
need to understand the context in which research takes place
and how different types of and approaches to research can
contribute to DFID's broader objectives;
-
The need to clarify the practical realities at the programme
and project level of balancing knowledge generation with
dissemination, uptake, and also strengthening the capacity
of local partners;
- Research
project design can be improved by taking account of diverse
aspects of poor people's livelihoods (what they produce;
what they consume; what the labour opportunities are, etc);
- The
importance of identifying ways to move partnerships towards
a "developmental" perspective and considering
a wider range of potential partners (private and public
sector, for profit and non-profit), while complementing
conventional partnerships with wider networks;
- The
need to build an appropriate balance between responsibilities
at programme and project levels, and to develop appropriate
linkages between research projects and DFID bilateral country
programmes;
- The
importance of recognising that there are potentially different
partnership needs during research, dissemination and uptake
phases and that the strategy for selecting and process of
working with partners needs to be clarified;
- The
increasing need to understand the policy and social / institutional
context, and clarify interactions between research functions
and policy influencing processes;
- The
benefits of encouraging better links and more effective
communications between DFID central Natural Resources Research
(NR) and DFID country programmes;
- The
shift to treating the project as a process, and the importance
of producing and disseminating outputs throughout the research
process;
- The
need to think of impact all along, from the earliest stages
of a research project;
- The
importance of developing mechanisms that allow partners
and intended beneficiaries of research outputs to constantly
review the progress and results achieved in research projects
- allowing the possibility for these to influence the direction
of the research in the light of field realities.
 Workshop
background papers (available on request from Karim Hussein
at ODI, email k.hussein@odi.org.uk)
included:
-
Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches: Origins, applications
to aquaculture research and future directions by Ian Goldman,
KHANYA - Managing Rural Change;
- Approaches,
methods and knowledge needed to increase understanding of
ultimate beneficiary needs by Philip Townsley and Jock Campbell,
Integrated Marine Management;
- Gender,
rights and poverty issues - lessons for the sector by Elizabeth
Harrison, School of African and Asian Studies, University
of Sussex;
- Partnerships
between research and service providing NGOs / the private
sector by John Farrington and Karim Hussein, Overseas Development
Institute;
- Research
impacts and uptake pathways likely to generate benefits
for the poor by John Farrington and Karim Hussein, Overseas
Development Institute.
For
further information on the workshop, supported by DFID and
facilitated by the Overseas Development Institute and Integrated
Marine Management, read the Workshop
Report
Online
or download the Word Document.
Email Karim Hussein at ODI: k.hussein@odi.org.uk
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