Research for better aid: an evaluation of DFAT’s investments

Assesses the degree to which the investment by the Australian aid program into research has been appropriate, effective and efficient, and provides recommendations for improving DFAT’s future management of research investment. Foreword Explores how research investment can be best managed to ensure DFAT supports aid innovation and high-quality aid program and policy decision-making. The evaluation focuses on whether the management of DFAT’s considerable development research investment has been appropriate, effective and efficient. Employing a multi-dimensional evaluation method, it draws on the experiences of DFAT staff and stakeholders, as well as the available expenditure data, in arriving at a set of well-supported findings and recommendations. The report makes several important points about the need for DFAT to have a clear sense about why and how it funds research. The department’s managers and officers need especially to be conscious of the effectiveness and efficiency risks implicit in their highly devolved form of research investment management. These risks will be reduced if robust knowledge management systems and a strong culture of research use are embedded in the department. The experience of other aid donors indicates that achieving this will be a significant challenge. The evaluation also makes a finding with clear implications for the way the department engages with research institutions in partner countries. It shows that, while the department’s research funding to Australian institutions increased significantly from 2005 to 2013, the level of direct funding to partner country institutions did not increase to the same extent and was, indeed, flat over the last five years of that period. There are clear benefits to be had in building research capacity in those institutions, either directly or through partnerships with Australian and international researchers. Given Australia’s ongoing investment in the Pacific, this may be a region in which future research funding can be focused.   &nbsp

The role of extension and forest characteristics in understanding the management decisions of new forest owners in Ireland

peer-reviewedMany European countries have seen significant changes in forest ownership structure, with the emergence of a cohort commonly referred to as new forest owners, mainly within the non-industrial, private forest (NIPF) owner group. The drivers of this change differ between countries but these owners frequently lack an existing knowledge base to draw on regarding forest management decisions and practices and may possess different objectives to traditional owners. As a result there is uncertainty concerning the management intentions of these owners. The provision of extension services is a recognised approach to supporting decision-making by NIPF owners but there have been relatively few studies that have sought to quantify the effectiveness of such initiatives in terms of management outcomes. In addition to measuring the outcome of extension initiatives, exploring the positive or negative outcomes can assist with the design of future initiatives. Ensuring that such initiatives are designed for appropriate phases in the forest life-cycle is important. This paper reports the results from a number of surveys that sought to explore the impact of an extension initiative, a thinning demonstration, on actual management outcomes and what characteristics of owners and their forests might explain observed management decisions. A retrospective pre-post test questionnaire was used at the demonstration to capture knowledge impacts and management intentions. A follow up survey was conducted 18 months later to investigate what, if any, practices had been undertaken. Data from a national household survey of land owners were also analysed to investigate whether the observations from the demonstration had significance for the wider population. The results suggest that the demonstration was successful in imparting knowledge to forest owners both in terms of self-reported learning and actual management outcomes. However, from an Irish perspective management decisions are dominated by forest age as the majority of the private estate is still in its first rotation. This presents a challenge to extension service personnel and to research seeking to explain management practices at a national level

Lessons Learnt From WASH Action Research With Practitioners in Four Countries

This is the final report from the Action Research for Learning programme, a three-year initiative (2013 -- 2015), led by IRC, to improve the effectiveness of existing hygiene promotion and community empowerment programmes of selected local Dutch WASH Alliance partners in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda. In Ethiopia and Bangladesh, the focus was on hygiene promotion, while in Ghana and Uganda the focus was on community empowerment interventions

Palliative Care Academic Career Awards: A Public-Private Partnership to Improve Care for the Most Vulnerable

Palliative care, an increasingly important medical field that focuses on the relief of pain and suffering, is in danger of not being able to meet the needs of America's aging population, or anyone of any age suffering from serious or life-threatening illness

Improving the Lives of Young Children: Opportunities for Care Coordination and Case Management for Children Receiving Services for Developmental Delay

Summarizes new opportunities for states to develop a coordinated system of care for children receiving early childhood intervention and services and how providers can support effective care coordination and case management policies