{"id":1026,"date":"2014-01-29T20:14:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/?p=1026"},"modified":"2016-01-06T17:37:09","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T17:37:09","slug":"grupo-faros-tough-question-are-we-producing-research-that-informs-and-changes-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/grupo-faros-tough-question-are-we-producing-research-that-informs-and-changes-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Grupo FARO\u2019s tough question: \u201care we producing research that informs and changes policies?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
[Editor\u2019s note: This post has been written by Orazio Bellettini and Adriana Arellano, from Grupo FARO, who are participating of\u00a0a \u00a0mentoring project with ASIES in Guatemala<\/a>.\u00a0Grupo FARO is undergoing an important organisational and\u00a0research approach reform triggered by a change in its environment.The post has been written partly in response to Lawrence MacDonald\u2019s and Todd Moss\u2019 essay on CGD\u2019s approach to policy influence. What do you think? Do they have the right approach?]<\/em><\/p>\n In its lessons learned document:\u00a0Building a Think-and-Do Tank: A Dozen Lessons from the First Dozen Years of the Center for Global Development<\/a>, CGD\u00a0presents key lessons useful to think tanks around the world.<\/p>\n Given the significant changes that have happened in the Ecuadorean political and economic context over the last few years,\u00a0Grupo FARO<\/a>\u00a0is in the process of\u00a0asking tough questions \u2013<\/i>one of CGD lessons- regarding how to influence policies in a contentious political environment.<\/p>\n One tough question that Grupo FARO asked itself last year relates to the type of research we produce and its potential to inform policies and change practices. Asking this question has been vital to rethink our organization and embark on efforts to change the focus of our research.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n In its own history of public policy research, Grupo FARO has positioned itself as a strong producer of research focused on monitoring and vigilance. Most of FARO\u2019s efforts have concentrated in analysing the compliance of public policies and we have developed a series of methodologies to compare what public policies plan to achieve and what they are really achieving.<\/p>\n But, as the Ecuadorian State has become stronger and has more capacity to design and implement public policies, especially at the national level, there is a need for research that moves from monitoring public policies to generating policy proposals and policy-applied knowledge that enriches the public debate.<\/p>\n In April 2013, Grupo FARO\u2019s Board of Directors approved a transition to a new research focus that balances public policy monitoring with research dedicated to producing new public policies. This change has the following objectives:<\/p>\n To implement this new focus the Board of Directors provided the following guidelines:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the following section we will briefly describe the different dimensions of our new research approach:<\/p>\n Grupo FARO believes that is important to develop in-house capacities to conduct policy-applied research. However, the magnitude of the challenges faced by our societies require a more collaborative approach to generate knowledge as well as capacities to transform ideas in better policies and practices. In other words, we believe that in the future,\u00a0think tanks will become think nets\u00a0<\/a>that create and connect networks made of knowledge producing organisations that engage in common projects.<\/p>\n Working within our domestic realm, Grupo FARO has partnered with Ecuadorian universities as well as other civil society organisations to implement join policy-oriented research projects that combine the capacities of partner organisations. At the regional level, Grupo FARO, in collaboration with other Latin American think tanks, established\u00a0ILAIPP<\/a>, a regional network of policy-applied research centres with the objective of conducting research to generate policy proposals that contribute with the development of Latin America.<\/p>\n \u202aGrupo FARO is increasingly conducting research at the regional level. We envision to do part of this work through ILAIPP as well as other regional networks Grupo FARO belongs to. In addition, and given the importance of informing our research at the national level with the analysis of experiences of other countries and regions, we plan to develop our capacities to conduct more comparative analyses. This will increase our perspective regarding particular issues and strengthen our capacity to think globally, in order to be more effective acting locally.<\/p>\n If we classify public policy research according to its purpose we can distinguish: academic, planning, instrumentation, action research and policy monitoring\/vigilance.\u00a0 All of these types of research are useful to policy making but they answer different questions and generate different depths of knowledge:<\/p>\n Producing a balanced variety of research will allow Grupo FARO to provide insights to the policy-making process at different moments.<\/p>\nOur research focus to date<\/h2>\n
A new research focus<\/h2>\n
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<\/b>1. More collaborative work<\/b><\/h3>\n
2. More literature reviews and comparative analyses<\/b><\/h3>\n
3. Balancing policy monitoring\/vigilance with other types of research<\/b><\/h3>\n
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4. Mode 2 of knowledge production and action research<\/b><\/h3>\n