WHY CAPACITY STRENGTHENING FOR DEVELOPMENT MATTERS

To overcome poverty and food insecurity, developing countries must design and put in place policies based on sound research and analysis. Policy research requires strong analytical skills, extensive experience, and a comprehensive knowledge of the local policy environment. But many poor countries have a shortage of people and institutions with the capacity to conduct policy research.

Much of the research on food policy is currently organized on an international level to generate information useful to a range of developing countries. Because this research often involves collaboration between developed- and developing-country researchers, it can over time help increase developing countries’ capacity for policy research. In the long run, strengthening the capacity of developing countries to conduct their own policy research and analysis will ultimately help them to solve their own policy problems and reduce their dependence on external policy advice.

IFPRI and other research institutions in developed countries have worked for the past several decades to help developing countries increase their capacity to conduct policy research. Here is a review of the options for capacity strengthening for policy research, an overview of IFPRI’s work in this area, and a summary of the best practices in capacity strengthening, as shown by experience.