Michelle Hibler

The link between research and policy is sometimes tenuous. But it is not necessarily so in Bangladesh where researchers from the International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) Micro Impacts of Macroeconomic and Adjustment Policies (MIMAP) program have been working closely with government since the project’s inception in 1992. Ten years later, the research has yielded substantial improvements in the monitoring of poverty, and the poverty monitoring surveys have emerged as a prime source of information, with wide policy implications.

"Poverty has always been on the government’s agenda in Bangladesh," explains Dr Mustafa Mujeri, leader of the MIMAP team at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies in Dhaka. But to have effective policies, one needs adequate information. And it should be recent information. "If the poverty data is outdated, then the policymakers don’t put that much emphasis on it," he adds.

Unfortunately, he says, these two elements — relevance and timeliness — were not alway present. As Dr Mujeri explains, poverty data in the 1980s in Bangladesh focused almost solely on income and consumption — a very unidimensional concept of poverty. Moreover, surveys were conducted infrequently — every 5 to 10 years. And the available data was out of date: more than five years could lapse between data collection and its dissemination.

Addressing problems

When the MIMAP Bangladesh project was launched, it was felt that if the research on poverty was to be policy-relevant, then it should begin by addressing these fundamental problems, says Dr Mujeri. To remedy the deficiency of information, the researchers worked with the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the department entrusted with collecting and disseminating information.

An important first step was to broaden the poverty indicators. "We had extensive meetings with various government departments, civil society, and researchers — the whole cross-section of the community — to devise indicators," explains Dr Mujeri. The Ministry of Health wanted indicators on particular aspects of health; similarly for education. "So the indicators were designed in a participatory manner," he explains, "and were, in a way, demand-driven." The MIMAP-Bangladesh poverty monitoring system now includes a multidimensional core set of 12 indicators: data is collected in 21 districts throughout the country through a series of regular and continuous surveys.

The researchers also sought to find ways of ensuring that the data could be collected, processed, and delivered to the policymakers in the shortest possible time and in forms they could easily and quickly understand. For example, the MIMAP team helped BBS develop a process for tabulating the data in a timely manner. Training programs helped develop BBS’ capacity for collecting, processing, and verifying data consistently. "Our goal was to develop the BBS’ institutional strength so it would have the capability to sustain this operation," says Dr Mujeri. As a result, he notes, they publish the information in less than a year — not only poverty-related data, but other data as well. "It’s a very significant contribution," he says.

Reaching out

Better tools were also developed to disseminate research results. "We used to publish a book in which the data was tabulated and processed." says Dr Mujeri. "But policymakers don’t have the time or even the interest to read all those big reports. So we introduced other tools such as policy briefs or research notes that in 3-4 pages give you the research outcomes, results, and policy implications." Results are also disseminated through working papers, newsletters, journal articles and through the media.

The effort has paid off. For instance, says Dr Mujeri, MIMAP’s poverty monitoring survey data was used to prepare Bangladesh’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). He himself was chief consultant for the preparation of the PRSP. "This PRSP is related to the 5-year planning process," he says, "and so the plan developed by the Planning Commission is based on our research outputs, at least on poverty related issues" — in analyzing poverty trends, in assessing the outcomes of poverty reduction strategies, even in terms of allocating resources in the budget. "Bangladesh is now allocating 26 or 27% of its total budget to social sectors: when we started, the allocations were 15-17%. MIMAP has stressed the importance of social development since the beginning," he points out.

Sharing results

This close collaboration is fairly recent. When the MIMAP project started, explains Dr Mujeri, there was no culture of informed research on policy in Bangladesh, no tradition of consulting researchers. "We had to convince policymakers that they need research." One of the keys to bridging the research-policy divide lies in close relationships, he says. "I think that is an important thing — if a researcher knows the policy-making process and has some interactions with policymakers. It’s a big advantage."

Those relationships are particularly important when trying to draw policymakers’ attention to research areas that may not be on their current agenda. "For instance," says Dr Mujeri, "we were doing research on what the priorities should be in government allocations. We came up with specific suggestions. For example, education is one area which should be given top priority in government allocations because it has the highest impact in Bangladesh, both in terms of poverty reduction and of growth."

"Sometimes you really have to play the role of the catalyst," says Mujeri. "We know that human development is an important area for the government, so we have to bring this research to them. Depending on the circumstances, one has to play a proactive role, extending the frontier of research in policymaking."

The MIMAP team also shares its results with the entire research community and development partners — "whomever is interested," says Dr Mujeri. "We share policy briefs, research outcomes, newsletters, and other forms of publications. In addition, during our discussions with the policy staff at the World Bank and others we also report on the kind of research we do and results we obtain."

Exchanges are facilitated in Bangladesh because the research community is small. "We know what others are doing and what the scope of their work and policy influence is," says Dr Mujeri. "I think it is important that, at the end of the day, it is not whose research has got to the policymakers, but whether policies have been developed or not and if they are the right policies. As researchers we feel that if our research has been used, we have done something that is at least useful."