Bridging Research and Policy

This project investigates the relationship between research and policy-making in selected policy areas in four African countries - Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. The wider policy context is the poverty reduction strategies of these countries. Takes its theoretical points of departure in different models of decision-making, the project examines the degree to which public policy is informed by research findings, produced principally by the domestic research community, or to what extent policy-making processes is divorced from the existing knowledge base in the countries concerned. The Kenyan and Tanzanian country case studies focus on the abolition of primary schools fees, while those on Malawi and Uganda address aspects of the agricultural sector, i.e. land tenure and agricultural marketing. A comparative study of the four cases is an integral part of the project.