Policy & Impact
EDI aspires to have impact on the lives of people in the countries they are working in. Policy engagement – which means participating effectively in the policy-making process – is critical to achieving this impact. We have embedded policy engagement throughout our research process, for example by hosting “match-making” workshops to connect policymakers with researchers, and producing Policy Briefs that aim to distil key messages from our research.
Further information about policy engagement
The development sector has shown in the last years that effective institutions are vital for sustained developmental progress. Progressive government policy and effective implementation therefore matter. But there is mixed progress across the developing world towards these goals as there are challenging political contexts that constrain this work. The intrinsic motivation of research – often being first class research that has high replication and scale potential, but is less focused on impact on outcomes– doesn’t often achieve policy impact or change. The development sector approach however is focused on achieving high impact, but less concerned about replicability and scalability, with researchers often questioning their evidence base. In order for EDI to achieve impact, as set out in the programmes logframe, our strategic and country partnerships will help ensure the interactions among these groups of stakeholders, civil society, policymakers and researchers are sustained.
