On the other side, among policy makers, there is also a growing awareness of the importance of knowledge-based policy making. I expect that a significant characteristic of international co-operation in the coming years is that international organizations will be less involved with transfer of financial resources, which will increasingly be handled by the private sector. The comparative advantage of international organizations will therefore lie in the generation of ideas, knowledge and norms for governance of the international system. This is an inherently much more knowledge intensive process. This will entail enhanced capacity in international organizations to develop and utilize knowledge produced by their own institutions and by the world's research and knowledge-generating institutions.
Research is usually low on the list of priorities in international development circles.
This ties in to the points I just raised. I believe most policy makers are aware of the importance of research. Their complaint is that academics do not always explicitly address policy issues or do not present their ideas in a usable form. As a policy research institute, therefore, it must carry out research that enjoys academic respectability and at the same time addresses the needs of policy makers, including both governmental and non-governmental institutions and actors. The relationship between social scientists and development practitioners is often ambivalent, and sometimes even conflictual.