FASID Seminar

1. Date： August, 25th, 2008, 12:00-14:00
2. Venue：FASID Seminar Room #1 (5th Floor)
3. Presenter:a. Dr. Gobind Nankani (President of the Global Development Network)
b. Dr. George Mavrotas (Chief Economist of the Global Development
Network)
4. Theme: A decade of Global Development Network
5. Brief content of Presentation

Mission & statement
The Global Development Network is a world-wide network of research and policy
institutes promoting the generation, sharing and application to policy ofmultidisciplinary knowledge for the purpose of development. GDN incorporates 8
regional partners in the southern or 'developing world' and 3 in the northern or'developed' world. These partnerships connect locally produced research with policy,
and the sharing of knowledge across the network. GDN supports the generation ofmultidisciplinary knowledge across all social sciences with an emphasis on economics.
To promote their work, GDN supports five core activities.
 Regional Research Competitions (RRCs) are conducted through their 8
regional partners in developing countries, to promote high quality researchin developing and transition countries; Global Research Projects (GRPs), involve research teams worldwide,
providing cross country research to help shape policy debate at country andglobal level. Current and past
projects focus on explaining thedevelopment growth experience, understanding policy reform, creatingstronger links between research & policy, poverty, migration, and working
on innovative health projects to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
for health; GDN's annual Global Development Awards & Medals Competition, is the1largest annual international competition for development research, aimed atpromoting the work of researchers and development project practioners
from developing and transitional countries;The GDN’s online research depository, GDNet, provides researchers withaccess to journal articles in addition to up- to- date research datasets;
GDN's annual Global Development Conferences provide a fora forresearchers, leading academicians and policy- makers to debate and discuss
the most pressing development issues of our time, whilst providing
researchers from developing countries with a platform to showcase theirresearch, share ideas and interact with leading experts.

Strategic Review
The June 2008 meeting of GDN's board endorsed the Networks efforts to build worldclass excellence in policy relevant research in developing countries. In doing so, newstrategies were recommended to help maintain these efforts:
 Shaping policy debate by supporting Global and Regional Policy Forums
 Annual GDN Prizes for outstanding think tanks
 The strengthening of regional partnerships through new inter-regional
research projects (IRRPs)
 A focus on global issues such as global public goods and global policy
issues; Establishing better outreach & communications by dissemination in othermajor languages.
In addition to its GRPs the Global Development Network works on other areas ofstrategic research.
 Research projects include 'Moving out of Poverty' (MOP), a project designed tocreate a standardized module on institutional relations and local power to help
understand social mobility;
 A UNDP-funded joint project with the AERC on strengthening institutional
capacity building of public policy institutes in Africa; Governance & Transparency Fund: Helping the capacity of think tanks in thedeveloping and transitional world working on public expenditure An International Growth Centre, which aims to be a central networking hub of2

partner organizations, researchers and practitioners• GDN will host 3ie (independent, international, impact evaluation initiative): An
independent non-profit institution which aims to improve the measurement of
the net effects of social and economic development programs in low- andmiddle-income countries through rigorous impact evaluations.

New activities
Two new Global Research Projects include work on 'Alternative Institutional
Approaches to Ensuring Effective Governance for Growth, Poverty Reduction and theDelivery of Public Services’ i.e. focus on how the delivery of public services is affectedby different institutional forms of government; and on promoting inclusive development
strategies to climate change, with a particular focus on climate change adaptation.
Proposals for future GRPs include Private Sector Development (PSD) in fast-growing
economies and Urban Challenges in Developing Countries (large cities).

Evaluation of GDN (on Dec 2007)
GDN performs independent evaluations every three years. The most recent, in 2007,
found that GDN provides a mostly unique, relevant and valuable service. The evaluation
highlighted that GDN builds a base of policy-relevant literature and capacity for thefuture research leaders to inform policy at both national and sub-national levels. A
survey of the recipients of grants from GDN found that, on average, the level ofsatisfaction with GDN was 'high'. Another important finding was that GDN’s Awards
and Medals Competition is valued extremely high among recipients and very important
for their career development.
The evaluation concluded by recommending 4 key actions to take GDN’s activities
forward; a continued focus on building research capacity in the developing world; awidening of the emphasis on a multi-disciplinary base; the strengthening ofrelationships with regional partnerships and the enhancement of policy outreachactivities.

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6.

Q&A

Summary and Comments

What is the role of GDN in developed countries?
GDN is a network of research institutes in the developing and developed world. The
network practices research, training and capacity building in developing countries. To
promote these activities, northern partners have a fundamental role in assisting regionalpartners and researchers in developing countries, helping them to connect with northern
institutions and researchers through capacity building activities, exchange programs,and by identifying experts for research projects and training courses.
How to change the global agenda on development
The agenda on development is very much driven by the UN, the Bretton Woods
Institutions and the OECD/DAC. The UN always has a strong influence in developing
countries while, the Bretton Woods institutions and OECD/DAC strengthen theirinfluence on development by inviting developing countries to be part of theirorganisations.
The shift of economic weight in the global economy towards developing countries has
been an important development in recent years, especially in emerging economies likeBRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China).
Generally, the voice of developing countries is still relatively low, but is changing
rapidly. Emerging economies are currently increasing in their importance and GDN tries
to bring their perspective on various development issues, including trade andagriculture.
The research-policy link: Some reflections
GDN is also interested in linking together research and policy. There are three ways tofacilitate this:a. Research has to be packaged and presented in a way which is accessible
to policy makers. Packaging should be different according to different

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stakeholders.
b. Research findings should be discussed and shared with all stakeholders(incl. NGOs, media, academia, and people in different fields who areinterested in the subject) because policy makers can be influenced fromvarious stakeholders.
c. Researchers overall have little understanding and influence on political
economy issues. But it is also true that sometimes good research have
immediate impact on policy.
What GDN is trying to do on this front is to ‘translate’ research findings in anaccessible form for policy makers and discuss them with other stakeholders thus trying
to shape public policy debates.
In addition, policy issues vary substantially by country and region so working withregional partners and making the research-policy link country-specific andregion-specific is equally important.
Moreover, GDN presents the research findings at various global fora (the annual GDN
conference and also side events at other international conferences and meetings
worldwide).
How the relationship between researchers and policy makers has changed
In Latin America, researchers have better access to policy makers because most ofthem have received similar training in North America Universities and they have acommon ‘language’ when they talk to each other on the subject. In Latin America, overthe last twenty years, many prominent researchers ended up as ministers and when
they leave the government they go back to think- tanks, so there is a continuous
contact between the research and policy community.
GDN as compared to other WB initiatives e.g. Global Development Gateway,
Global Knowledge Partnership
Global Development Gateway focuses on easily accessible information on all
development projects in the developing world, to promote harmonization among
donors because too many donors initiate too many projects in the same sector, and in5

the same country.
Global Knowledge Partnership emphasizes existing knowledge and brings attention tolearning.
GDN focuses on building world class excellence in policy relevant research indeveloping countries.
How to promote policy relevant research
Linking together research and policy is not an easy task. One reason is lack ofcommunication between researchers and policy makers (policy makers have their own
needs and motivations and researchers have their own research interests). Furthermore,policy makers do not have the time to read available research. One solution is tofacilitate communication between them by packaging research in a format which isaccessible to policy makers (e.g. policy briefs). Finally, if researchers are keen to bepolicy relevant, they need to find out from policy makers what are the questions policy
makers are most concerned with, and then try to address those questions in theirresearch.
How Japan could contribute more to the international debate on development?
Japan has been very influential and instrumental in the development debate through theimportant East Asia Miracle study a few years back. There are many lessons emerging
from the East Asian Miracle such as the importance of macro stability, openness, andthe crucial role of the market among others, but they are just part of the whole story. In
some cases, depending on the situation, a dynamic industrial policy and capital
controls are also needed. We should be careful where and when to do that and it has tobe country specific. Japanese thought on development policy already has a big
influence in international development debate.

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