Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development
Influencing policy is an important scaling mechanism. However, if a program is to plausibly claim that it has or can influence policy, it needs to explain how. This is not straightforward because of the complex nature of policy change. Scholars suggest the use of theory to help answer the ‘how’ ques...
| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/125276 |
| _version_ | 1855514556368945152 |
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| author | Douthwaite, Boru Proietti, Claudio Polar, Vivian Thiele, Graham |
| author_browse | Douthwaite, Boru Polar, Vivian Proietti, Claudio Thiele, Graham |
| author_facet | Douthwaite, Boru Proietti, Claudio Polar, Vivian Thiele, Graham |
| author_sort | Douthwaite, Boru |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Influencing policy is an important scaling mechanism. However, if a program is to plausibly claim that it has or can influence policy, it needs to
explain how. This is not straightforward because of the complex nature of policy change. Scholars suggest the use of theory to help answer the
‘how’ question. In this article, we show how, in practice, a middle-range policy change theory—Kingdon’s Policy Window theory—helped us
model the workings of four outcome trajectories that produced agricultural policy outcomes in four cases. By providing a common framework,
the middle-range theory helped accumulate learning from one evaluation to the next, generating specific and generalizable insights in the
process. Accumulation learning in this way can help organizations become more convincing in the proposals they write to donors, more
accountable and better able to identify and deliver on their goals. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace125276 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| publisherStr | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1252762025-10-26T12:54:55Z Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development Douthwaite, Boru Proietti, Claudio Polar, Vivian Thiele, Graham biofortification seed certification agricultural research sweet potatoes education Influencing policy is an important scaling mechanism. However, if a program is to plausibly claim that it has or can influence policy, it needs to explain how. This is not straightforward because of the complex nature of policy change. Scholars suggest the use of theory to help answer the ‘how’ question. In this article, we show how, in practice, a middle-range policy change theory—Kingdon’s Policy Window theory—helped us model the workings of four outcome trajectories that produced agricultural policy outcomes in four cases. By providing a common framework, the middle-range theory helped accumulate learning from one evaluation to the next, generating specific and generalizable insights in the process. Accumulation learning in this way can help organizations become more convincing in the proposals they write to donors, more accountable and better able to identify and deliver on their goals. 2023-10-04 2022-11-03T02:39:35Z 2022-11-03T02:39:35Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/125276 en Open Access Oxford University Press Douthwaite, B.; Proietti, C.; Polar, V.; Thiele, G. 2022. Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development. Research Evaluation. ISSN 1471-5449. 1-13. |
| spellingShingle | biofortification seed certification agricultural research sweet potatoes education Douthwaite, Boru Proietti, Claudio Polar, Vivian Thiele, Graham Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development |
| title | Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development |
| title_full | Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development |
| title_fullStr | Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development |
| title_short | Using theory to understand how policy change happens: Insights from agricultural research for development |
| title_sort | using theory to understand how policy change happens insights from agricultural research for development |
| topic | biofortification seed certification agricultural research sweet potatoes education |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/125276 |
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