Developing Evaluation and Communication Capacity in Information Society Research (DECI-2)
Programs and partnerships
Lead institution(s)
Summary
One of IDRC's main goals is ensuring that high-quality research contributes to change in policy and practice. Meeting that objective can be challenging, given the complex interactions among stakeholders, researchers, and communicators.Read more
One of IDRC's main goals is ensuring that high-quality research contributes to change in policy and practice. Meeting that objective can be challenging, given the complex interactions among stakeholders, researchers, and communicators. Evaluation and communication are essential to ensuring that research has an impact. The two fields share common elements: the importance of engaging users from the beginning, the significance of pretesting data collection tools and communication materials, and the notion of users taking ownership of evaluation and communication activities and outcomes. Building on earlier research, this project focuses on new methodologies for evaluation and communication, and will provide mentorship support and capacity building in these methodologies for Information and Networks researchers across the Global South. It will result in a trained cadre of regional mentors who are able to facilitate advanced methodologies in both evaluation and communications. Participating flagship project teams will develop their evaluation and communication skills, and gain opportunities for policy and practice change. More will be learned about practical issues involved in implementing and combining the new evaluation and communications methodologies. Communication products will also be developed to share these practical lessons with practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.