IFPRI's communications work seeks to increase the impact of the Institute's research and capacity strengthening activities by using appropriate means to engage key stakeholders in a continual dialogue that leads to sustainable solutions to the pressing problems of hunger and poverty.
Research can only affect policy in a significant way if it is appropriately communicated. Communications of research results can improve the quality of the debate on food policy issues and lead to better actions.
Research results can:
- confirm the appropriateness of policy actions taken;
- indicate that policy change is needed to reduce risks/costs or increase benefits/welfare;
- show in advance the probable outcomes of alternative policies and thus contribute to rational decisionmaking;
- offer synthesized information on how other policymakers have coped with an issue; and
- alert policymakers to major threats.
But research results only contribute their maximum value if policymakers understand them well and receive them at the right time. Research results that feed into the process when the policy agenda is being developed, when specific objectives and policy options are being identified and evaluated, and when recommendations are being advanced have the best chance of finding their way into the consensus-building, legislation, and policy implementation stages.
IFPRI has impact when hungry and poor people in developing countries benefit from our research findings; when we engage in dialogue with all those who can use our research results and foster public awareness about food and nutrition security; and when key stakeholder groups in developing and developed countries turn to us as a prime contact for factual, timely, and competent information on all questions related to food and nutrition security, poverty eradication, and natural resource management as outlined in the 12 strategic themes of the Institute. The latter means of impact can take several forms: for example when policymakers and policy advisors in developing countries use our research findings as a basis for rational decisionmaking to fight hunger and poverty; when multilateral aid organizations turn to IFPRI to do research on vital food policy issues; and when NGOs, the mass media, and the private sector regard our Institute as the prime source for science-based input on food policy questions.
Impact on the decisionmaking process is not limited to the communications of results, but starts at the stage of agenda and priority setting of governments, NGOs, the media, and other key actors. Raising awareness before an issue becomes a crisis and helping stakeholders to identify their goals and priorities are also important objectives of IFPRI`s communications work.
A continual dialogue through a variety of communications vehicles ensures that policymakers can benefit from research and be more directly involved in identifying research goals and objectives. It leads to three positive outcomes for the institute:
- a constant reality check that IFPRI's research and programs focus on the needs of poor and hungry people in developing countries and contribute to sustainable solutions to poverty and hunger;
- a formal and informal role in influencing immediate decisionmaking; and
- long-lasting relationships that allow IFPRI to play a role in future agenda and priority setting.
Communications channels for reaching these and other audiences range from high-level personal dialogues with national policymakers (the direct approach) to engagement with the global mass media in order to influence policymaking via public opinion and its shapers (the indirect approach). The communications spectrum also includes printed material, the web page, conferences and workshops, and audio and audiovisual material. Communicating research results to each key stakeholder requires one or more communications channels.
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