Expanding the evidence base on knowledge brokering in international development

At home and abroad, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is trying to bring together governments, civil society organizations, the private sector and research organizations. Since 2012, it  has been investing in multi-stakeholder knowledge platforms for global development, which have yielded positive results, according to The Gold Standard learning review, undertaken in 2016. However, the scientific evidence base of these platforms and other knowledge brokering initiatives still needs to be strengthened. To identify ways in which the use of evidence in policy and practice can be enhanced, the Science for Using Research (SURe) programme initiated three research projects. The preliminary results of these projects are presented here.

The new research projects initiated by SURe investigate knowledge co-creation and brokering for sexual and reproductive health, for food and business research, and with the private sector. The projects, which were initiated in September 2017, started with a systematic literature review to determine the current state of knowledge brokering in the three fields under investigation. During the first exchange meeting on 3 April 2018, the project teams presented their preliminary findings. This article is based on the interactions and findings presented at this meeting.

Key findings

Although each of the three research programmes addresses a specific topic, participants came up with some general key findings.

• First, there seems to be little overlap between the three bodies of literature identified during the literature review phase. Apparently, there is no single ‘core’ literature on knowledge brokering. This implies that for a more common understanding of the knowledge brokering process, it is important to look outside specific sectors.
• Second, the research team focusing on sexual and reproductive health observed that knowledge is usually explicitly or implicitly depicted in the literature as an external, immutable and transferable object, a pure fact that imposes a meaning on its user. This finding was unexpected because research focusing on knowledge acknowledges that different actors can bring in their own knowledge. Moreover, the literature recognizes the importance of local knowledge in understanding development processes and improving practices.
• Third, the literature on the private sector’s role in knowledge brokering is growing, but is still limited. This is an interesting finding, given the increased emphasis on the private sector’s role as a key development actor, arguably calling for more emphasis on the private sector in further research.
• Fourth, the projects identified that there is probably a research bias towards positive cases, given that researchers are more likely to write about successful knowledge brokering processes. This raises questions about how research findings should be interpreted.
• Last, the potential to scale up was identified as limited, indicating that this aspect needs to be considered in the analyses.

These findings demonstrate that the reviews represent a solid base for the next phase of the three projects, the empirical phase. In addition, the literature reviews were found to be relevant to the approaches taken by the Dutch knowledge platforms and NWO-WOTRO. This was confirmed by Yvonne Erasmus from the Africa Centre for Evidence, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, who noted during the meeting that she was “impressed by the richness of the findings from the different projects”.

Challenges and ways forward

The exchange meeting was marked by a lively exchange between various stakeholders who, over the course of several sessions, discussed the projects in detail, leading to some important conclusions about challenges and ways forward for the next phases. As each of the research projects focus on a distinct topic and are developing their own approach to assessing and analysing the existing scientific literature, some challenges emerged in finding communalities. At the same time, however, the heterogeneity of the findings was recognized as a strength, with the SURe programme fostering interaction and knowledge exchange between the projects. During the exchange meeting, Louise Shaxson, Senior Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, UK, encouraged the project teams to place emphasis on understanding the political economy of knowledge brokering, including its goals, legitimacy, understanding and incentives. The importance of the politics of knowledge was also emphasized in the meeting’s afternoon session with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, various knowledge platforms and NGOs. These stakeholders stressed the need to consider sustainability and institutionalization – what happens after project closure? – and the role of researchers and donors in facilitating this kind of research.

The systematic review phase will be completed in October 2018, so those interested in the results of the reviews will soon have access to the final results.