Walking Through fire: Creating wealth, enhancing your and prestige by Maurice Bolo

BEYOND RESEARCH: An overview What would motivate researchers to ‘go beyond research’ and demonstrate the social relevance of their work? What set of skills do they require to achieve that mandate? What kind of tools exist, or should be in place for their use? What strategies have worked, not worked and in what context(s)? How do we know if the policies and processes are achieving the intended outcomes? How do we influence change towards the desired outcomes? These questions are at the core of this new book, ‘Beyond Research’ as it explores the key concepts and principles of policy making and policy influencing; the role of research and evidence in influencing policy change; the tools and strategies of influence; multi-stakeholder processes, including policy advocacy and stakeholder engagement and policy evaluation and impact assessments Beyond Research is weaved around the ‘image of stairs’ presented in seven main parts, each motivated by the effort and actions required in ‘maneuvering the stairs’ Part 1 – ‘Staring the Stairs’ provides the setting in a policy and development context with five policy narratives from Kenya and Nigeria. From the policy narratives, it gleans policy challenges, issues and policy options. The part ends with selected country case studies of actual innovation policies in practice from Ghana, Botswana, Uganda and Malawi. Part 2 – ‘Steps In’ to provide policy and the policy making cycle definitions, outlining the reason behind a gap between research and policy, and why policy makers rarely use evidence from research in their decision-making process. It uses case studies, exercises and role play to highlight the concept of multi- stakeholder processes and interests and how these affect policy and practice. Part 3 – ‘Steps Up’ to present various policy instruments that have been used to address socio- economic developmental challenges in 15 African countries. Having described the case studies and examples of the policy instruments, this section presents the process of designing, writing and communicating policy briefs as effective tools for influencing policy. Part 4 – ‘Stepping sideways’ to tackle the issue of policy advocacy and stakeholder engagement. In this section, the author discusses various approaches for effective communication of policy to different target stakeholders, especially the policy makers. This part also highlights the justification for enhancing the role and capacity of women and youth in policy research and formulation; and the mainstreaming of gender and youth in science and technology agenda in institutions of higher education and research as well as the need for ensuring equity and inclusivity in the policy process. Part 5 – ‘Stepping down’ highlights the tools for assessing training effectiveness and ‘a coaching and mentorship roadmap’ intended to enhance the capacity and skills for designing, formulating and influencing policy as well as the tools for assessing the effectiveness of suggested actions, assessments and tools.