1. DISCONNECTIONS
BETWEEN RESEARCH
AND POLICY
Presenter: Prof Teboho Moja
Institution: New York University.

2. DEFINITIONS
 Basic research is understood to be a systematic
process of generating new knowledge which can be
used as a tool for providing information to policy
formation (Walt, 1994).
 Policy research is a special type of research that can
provide communities and decision makers with useful
information and possible resolving fundamental
problems, the focus is linking policy agenda with
development of public policies (Majchrzak, 1984).

3. Interface Barriers
 Dissemination barriers (language, no access to
policymakers, lack of dissemination skills outside academic
circles, Funding agencies influences and conditions etc)
 Usage barriers (no culture of EBP, access to researchers
and their products, report format that is not usable for policy
makers, lack of skills in evaluating quality or interpreting
findings, poor quality research))

4. Researcher-Policymaker
Interface
 Researcher –  Policymaker –
dissemination (deliberate) accessing (diffusion)
1. Research Reports 1. Media
2. Workshops/Conference/se 2. Official statistics
minar
3. Polls.
3. Academic circles
4. Policy units/think
4. Informally passing results tanks
to policy-makers.
5. Academic
connections.

5. Communication between policy-makers and
researchers (Stephenson and Hennink 2002)
 MODEL 1 (natural sciences).  MODEL 2.
1. Research as linear series of 1. Enlightenment model.
events
2. Less direct link between
2. Logical process following a policy-makers and
particular sequence. researchers.
3. Provides end-stage results. 3. The results provide
cumulative weight of
4. Disseminate results to knowledge – gradual
policy-makers. chance in thinking.
4. It provides a more realistic
view of researcher-policy
maker interface.

6. Bridging the gap
 How should policymakers choose research results that
would inform their policies?

7. SELECTING RESEARCH RESULTS TO
INFORM POLICY

8. Conclusion
 There are challenges in the interface between research
and policy
 Academia and Politics are two contextually different
worlds.
 The big question is how to bridge the gap – e.g. policy
briefs, inclusion of policy recommendations in reports,
becoming policy entrepreneurs, writing for a policy
audience, knowing specific policy areas that needs to
be investigated.