Policies and Institutional Innovation

Policy-oriented research is that which is aimed primarily at affecting the choices made by governments or other institutions whose decisions are embodied in laws and regulations. This is a growing area of CGIAR activity, in recognition of the fact that influencing policies can often be the best means to achieving impact at a significant scale.

Demonstrating the impact of policy-oriented research is a difficult challenge. Documenting that research has influenced policies requires a political science approach, preferably involving interviews with policy makers. This analysis is usually qualitative in nature. Moving on to assessing the impacts of a change in policy or institutional arrangements on the population affected, requires further analysis. Pulling both components together in a single study is not easy, but it can be done.

Impact pathway

Some of examples of studies assessing the impacts of CGIAR policy-oriented research and related work on institutional innovations: