The theme of the research augurs on challenges and opportunities in interfacing pathways for translating research evidence through policy to practice for sustainable African development. The key research question augurs on what the research protocols and models of public management that can be deployed to reform the research, policy and practice interface?

1. Legislative and Institutional
Pathways interfacing the Research,
Policy and Practice Nexus
BT Costantinos, PhD
Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,
Department of Public Administration and
Management, AAU, costy@costantinos.net,
Strengthening Linkages between
Policy Research and Policy making for African Development
Sub-Theme One:
Conceptualizing research, policy and practice for Sustainable African
development
African Technology Studies Network (ATSN)
Annual Conference & Workshop

2. Theme of the Research
The research theme augurs on challenges
and opportunities in interfacing pathways
for translating research evidence through
policy to practice for sustainable African
development.
The key research question augurs on
what the research protocols and models of
public management that can be deployed to
reform the research, policy and practice
interface?

3. Research questions
1. What are the research-policy-practice
interface analytical limitations?
2. What research protocols can be
deployed to synergise the interface?
3. What public management models can be
proposed to advance the interface
Hypothesis:
Policy formulation pluralism and practice is most likely to
happen when initiatives emanate from society rather than the
state or international actors. The effectiveness of state and non
state organisations at promoting policy pluralism depends on their
autonomy, capacity, complexity, and coherence.

4. Observations
Agency & ideology for RPP in Africa:
• Participants :
• governments: preside on the nexus,
• political organisations not affiliated government,
• opposition groups, intellectuals and the press;
• local non-state entities that exert far-reaching
external influence over political reform;
• Certain international agencies that range their
activities and influence extensively;
• These are reinforced by uncertainty and
complexity reducing activities of key participants.
• This hierarchy of agency effectively places some
participants in positions of subordination.

5. Discussion
Analytical perspectives of the RPP nexus
1. a tendency to narrow RPP nexus to the terms of immediate not
very well considered action, a naïve realism, as it were;
2. inattention to problems of articulation RPP systems and
processes within local realities rather than simply as formal or
abstract possibilities;
3. a nearly exclusive concern in certain institutional perspectives
on RPP nexus with generic attributes of organisations and
consequent neglect of analysis in terms of specific strategies
and performances of organisations;
4. ambiguity as to whether African think tanks are agents or
objects of the nexus;
5. inadequate treatment of the role of policy transfers from the
BWI and of relations between global and indigenous aspects
or dimensions of policy-practice nexus

6. A determinate order of institutions, interests
powers and activities operates through
complexes of ideas and values, filling
out, specifying, anchoring and often short-
cutting their formal content or meaning. This
raises the questions
• Are all ideas and values allowed to contend?
Are there laws or unwritten codes which
prevent or hinder intellectual and cultural
freedom?
• Do the views and perspectives of society
have a significant and legitimate place in
policy projects and processes? Is good faith
criticism of a particular policy strategy
construed

7. Proliferation of aid, Policy Transfers
Capacity building for policy pluralism is important, but it is
also important that institutions in civil society and the state in
Africa make the most effective use of whatever actual capacity
they have for igniting policy change; which begs the question:
• What is the overall rationality or significance of the great
traffic of international programmes and projects of
capacity development in Africa, the proliferating activities
that seem to show little regard for economy of co-
ordination; not to mention new forms of participatory
research into social engineering that seem to haunt the
rural landscape indefinitely?
• How far and in what ways do various international
agencies’ programmes, mechanisms, forms of knowledge
and technical assistance feed on one another in helping set
the boundaries of policy reform in Africa?

8. Number of researches undertaken 2000-2008 Fig. 1 - Policy research and relevance
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200 IMF/WB
0 UN System
CSOs
Gender
Education
Health
Economy
Academia
Democracy
Gender
Education
Health
Economy
Democracy
Research arenas and policy relevance

9. RPP Emerging paradigms
Capital formation and accumulation
Human, spiritual & social capital Policy & institutional strategy
Local adaptive strategies Legal empowerment of the poor
RPP Interface Transformation Participatory planning
Human security and development continuum
Processual/ Strategic elements Sustainability Benchmarks
• Rules: constitutional, legislative, • Resilience,
administrative
• Institutions: autonomy, • economic efficiency,
capacity, complexity, cohesion • social equitability
Levels of application: household, community, wereda, region and federal

10. Mainstreaming a the nexus
Participatory Situation analysis:
Policy, strategy, processes and structures for Public Sector
Management - Think tanks, Legislature, Executive
Political economy strategic analysis
Evaluation of institutions, stakeholders and
rules collected and collated
Managing strategic
Information
Develop political economy tools
Sustained and institutional arrangements
implementation of for implementation
RPP and active
feedback on Blend RPP to national Strategic
accomplishments Governance Frameworks
RPP Decentralised
Management at District and Mainstreaming and integration
Community levels RPP operational plans

11. Guiding rules and tools
With reference to policy pluralism and governance, the rules are
1) policy contest (i.e. unrestricted expression of social interests);
2) policy participation (i.e. channels for citizen involvement);
3) administrative accountability, transparency, and
predictability;
The research should focus on four key generic characteristics
1) Organisational Autonomy: independence of the organisation
to set any pursue its own goals;
2) Organisational Capacity: effectiveness of the organisation at
achieving its stated objectives;
3) Organisational Complexity: bureaucratisation of internal
structure;
4) Organisational Cohesion: sharing of common values, goals
and organisational culture among leaders and members;

12. Open inclusive policy making
1. Careful planning: preparation and learning, transparency,
2. Inclusion: Governments benefit from active citizens and
dynamic civil society
3. Shared vision , purpose, trust, impact, participatory
culture, action and sustained engagement
4. Leadership and strong commitment to information and
consultation active participation in policy-making is needed.
5. Public consultation and active participation should be
undertaken as early in the policy process as possible;
• Governments have an obligation to account for the use they
make of citizens inputs received through feedback ;
• Governments need the tools to evaluate performance in
providing information, conducting consultation and
engaging citizens in order to adapt to new requirements
and changing conditions for policy-making.

13. Thank You BT Costantinos, PhD
Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,
Department of Public Administration and Management, AAU,
costy@costantinos.net
https://sites.google.com/site/doncosty/