Towards Policy Relevant Knowledge in the Mekong: Exploring the Links Between Sustainability Research and Policy

This report discusses the outcome of a project focusing on linkages between sustainability policy and research in the Mekong Region. In the context of a discussion of literature on linkages between research and policy generally, the project examined a number of projects supported by the Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET). Each of these case study projects has been undertaking research concerned with some aspect of sustainable use of resources in the region.

The projects were examined in terms of the policy engagement strategies (implicit or explicit) used by the projects and in the context of some of the characteristics of policy making in each country.

The project was originally conceived as a study of policy-making processes related to sustainability in the Mekong Region. It was hoped that the projects would themselves provide useful lessons about such processes and about ways for future projects to improve policy engagement. However, the projects operated under severe time constraints involving a very short project period (nine months or less). For this reason effective policy engagement was very difficult and achieving policy outcomes was virtually impossible within the project timeframe. The focus of this report (and of the research policy linkages project) has shifted from reporting on policy engagement by the projects towards presenting ideas to support improved policy engagement capacity within SUMERNET projects for the future.

Some of the main conclusions of the research and policy linkages project are:

• The projects generally did not have clear policies for strategy engagement from the beginning. These tended to be developed as the project progressed.
• While the projects generally recognised the importance of different stakeholder interests, they took a very “expert-oriented” approach to community interests. These were often studied through surveys or PRA, but were interpreted through an expert lens. Institutional stakeholders were more widely recognised and sometimes involved in the research, but some of the research was dominated by a sectoral perspective.
• While firm policy recommendations are not available from most projects (and may not be forthcoming in the current SUMERNET phase) it seems likely that they will be presented as policy recommendations rather than policy options.

This report suggests a number of strategies and approaches that could assist in enhanced policy engagement for sustainability projects:

• Policy-oriented research projects need to build in strategies for policy engagement as early as possible, ideally at the project design stage.
• Closely related to the early development of a policy engagement strategy is the idea of involving some stakeholders (including “policy makers”) in the research itself, either as active partners in research (as in the case of the floods project in Vietnam) or through regular interaction in the case of more senior people.
• Carry out an analysis of the institutional context (institutional actors and their roles) and a stakeholder analysis before commencing research, or as early as possible. At the minimum, this would involve identifying stakeholders and considering their perspectives.
• Policy Dialogues
• Action Research
• Policy engagement strategies need to be multi-pronged.
• Communication of research results needs to be targeted.

Perhaps the most important implication of the project is the importance of developing policy engagement strategies from the design stage of a project and for involving “policy makers” throughout the project, not just as it progresses. Ideally policy makers need to be involved in the research design phase as well as being involved in routine reflection on progress as research goes on. This assists the researchers to modify their findings to be more policy relevant and keeps the policy actors aware of the research directions and progressive findings in a way that is more efficient than post-research meetings, reports and policy briefs alone. The continuing engagement of policy actors in research is the flip side of policy engagement by researchers.