Introduction to Towards Collaborative Research in International Development

Abstract

This book is about how best to carry out research intended to support international development and about the central role of social science in helping in this endeavour. The focus is on developing countries and, within those developing countries, on agricultural and rural development. This is an area where the development needs are particularly great, and likely to grow in the future with the large, looming, and possibly existential risks of climate change, environmental degradation, non-sustainable agriculture and failures of governance. Within this broad area, the primary focus will be on official development assistance (ODA). This is the assistance provided to developing countries by government agencies mostly from the so-called Western world (i.e. Europe, North America and Australasia) and often referred to as North– South aid. Following the end of World War 2, ODA accounted for almost all development assistance. Today, it still accounts for the lion’s share of development assistance in monetary terms. However, we recognize that increasingly significant assistance is also provided through South–South cooperation and from philanthropic sources. Using research to guide development is well-accepted as an integral part of the change process required to address these risks. However, in the past the approach to research has not always been as effective as it could be. In the past, research intended to support development has often been driven and undertaken by international technical experts without enough consideration for the needs and priorities of the intended beneficiaries of the research. Research has also often been undertaken by specialists working in their own project or disciplinary silos, not communicating with other researchers working on a related research problem in the same aid recipient country. There has also often been a disconnect between researchers and development actors (including the intended beneficiaries) whereby researchers have seen ‘research as an end in itself’ and issues of implementation in a development program being the responsibility of someone else. In our view, for research to be successful in helping to bring about positive change in developing countries it needs to