Co-producing policy recommendations: Lessons from a DEGRP project in Uganda

This report by DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) describes in detail how the researchers turned findings into recommendations, and how the various stages of stakeholder consultation influenced different elements of the project. 

It includes a step-by-step illustration of the stakeholder engagement process, which is also available as a separate infographic.

This resource and the following information was contributed by Alice Macfarlan.

Authors and their affiliation

Joshua Balungira, Ben D’Exelle, Borja Perez-Viana and Arjan Verschoor - DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme (DEGRP)

Key features

This resource is an example of working with stakeholders to turn findings into policy recommendations. The research involved economic experiments, a socioeconomic survey and a social tie survey in order to understand the risk-taking and risk-sharing habits that help to explain agricultural investment decisions. After producing a number of 'findings', the research team then worked iteratively with stakeholders at the local and the national level to turn these findings into recommendations.

How have you used or intend on using this resource?

I think this resource would be especially useful for evaluators and managers of evaluation who might know theoretically the importance of engaging stakeholders in recommendation writing, but are looking for a clearer idea of what this might look like in practice before diving in. 

While this resource is not a how-to guide, I think the description of the stakeholder engagement process (section 2) and accompanying flowchart of the iterative stages of engagement will allow readers to start thinking about some of the steps involved in applying this process to their own projects.

Why would you recommend it to other people?

I think this report makes a really good case for the value of co-producing recommendations and iterative engagement with stakeholders at multiple levels. As the authors say, the process resulted in final recommendations that were "much more sophisticated and realistic than our initial policy lessons" (p.5). 

Sources

Verschoor, A., D'Exelle, B., Perez-Viana, B., and Balungira, J. (2016) Co-producing policy recommendations: Lessons from DEGRP project “A behavioural economic analysis of agricultural investment decisions in Uganda”. DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme (DEGRP). Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/research-for-development-outputs/co-producing-policy-recommendations-lessons-from-a-degrp-project-in-uganda