What Do Practitioners Want from Research? Exploring Ugandan and American Development Practitioners’ Interest in Research

Abstract

Are development practitioners interested in research? If so, what kinds of research interest them, and for what purposes? Is the research they have access to meeting their needs for program design and management? These questions are central to understanding why research is used (or not), yet they are often overlooked by efforts to promote development research use. I interviewed practitioners in Washington, DC and Uganda to explore how they relate to research, and I identified six types of interest in research. Understanding practitioners’ diverse interests in research, and better aligning research agendas and knowledge mobilization efforts with them, may lead to more research use and more informed development practices.