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Meet the Senior Research Fellows
We talk to Ron Skeldon, one of DFID's new Senior Research Fellows. He and the other fellows provide the scientific leadership for DFID's research priorities, trying to enhance the relevance of research and maximise its impact on development policy and practice...
Professor Ron Skeldon was one of the first Senior Research Fellows to take up his position in DFID in June 2009. Currently Professorial Fellow in the Department of Geography in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, he is 40% seconded to the Department for two years.
The scheme, to bring independent and expert advice into the organisation, is a first for DFID. It is being watched closely by both donors and the academic community. The Fellows bring with them cutting-edge knowledge across the development spectrum, from state fragility and migration, to low-carbon energy and nano-technologies. There are 15 Fellows in total.
Ron's specialist area is migration, described by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at the recent opening of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Athens as "often the subject of shrill debate". The challenge then, is to reason the debate with evidence.
MAPPING THE EVIDENCE
One of his first tasks was to 'map the evidence' that exists in his field of expertise. An idea of the new Director of DFID's Research and Evidence Division, Professor Chris Whitty, the initiative is a serious attempt to review the evidence which exists around different development topics in a systematic way.
Such reviews are not uncommon in research. Cochrane Reviews are perhaps the best known, providing a database of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that summarise and interpret the results of high-quality medical research. Systematic reviews attempt to bring the same level of rigour to reviewing research evidence as should be used in producing that research evidence in the first place.
Such a neutral 'bank' of evidence, selected and assessed in a transparent way, should be invaluable to busy policymakers (it should also help DFID identify where the research gaps are).
"For the mapping exercise, I originally came up with around seven issues which have emerged strongly in the current migration policy development debate", explains Ron. His long association with UN and specialised agencies gives him a good insight of current policy debates. "These include such hot topics as whether skilled migration prejudices development, and the role of remittances in development. For some of these areas, there is plenty of robust evidence that has already been systematically reviewed: for other topics, virtually no evidence exists. It's an exciting project!"
Ron's recent publications are on brain drains and migration and the MDGs, but he is very interested in the linkages between international and internal migration. "The research around these topics have been developed almost completely independently of each other", he says "but there's great potential in connecting the two discourses and the people working within each of them."
GETTING EVIDENCE INTO POLICY
The SRFs provide one step in a broader movement to systematise the way that DFID uses evidence in its decision-making. "The process of getting research into use is complex and complicated", says Ron. "We do know that evidence forms one - but only one - of a
plethora of
factors which influence policy." For some kinds of research it is a smaller piece of the overall
jigsaw than in others.
The most recent report of the DFID-funded research programme on migration, Making Migration Work for Development - the culmination of six years of research - concludes that, "for migration
to have its full developmental impact, the most beneficial policy change would be to reduce barriers
to migration, at all levels and particularly for the poorest."
Not a recommendation that would be acted on lightly by most governments. "Evidenced-based policymaking is particularly tricky in this field", says Ron, "because politics gets in the way. What happens when evidence contradicts something that is politically inflammatory? The reality is that, no matter what the evidence shows, policymakers do have to respond to public opinion and that public opinion might not be informed by evidence."
He illustrates the nature of this complexity using the example of skilled migration. "One area I've been looking at is Ethical Recruitment policies. In this country, the NHS does not actively recruit health personnel in around 163 developing countries. This seems like a good idea - to get away from the accusation that we are poaching skilled staff from the developing world where they are sorely needed. So the policy makes us feel good. And there is an idea that such ethical Codes of Conduct should be extended beyond the UK and not only in the health sector, but perhaps also for teachers and other professional sectors. But the evidence we have suggests that, in fact, these Codes of Conduct might not be such a good idea. In other words, that the recruitment of health workers from developing countries may not prejudice their own health systems. Why? Because many of the skilled workers are drawn from cities where health provision is adequate - not the rural areas where need is greatest. Who is to say these skilled workers, if they had not been recruited, would have taken up jobs in the rural areas?"
UNIQUELY CHALLENGED
One particular challenge for academics working on migration is the lack of data. Up-to-date, representative and comprehensive data on migration isn't available for most countries of the world. Data in incomplete and often out of date: indeed many countries have no idea how many of their nationals have left, how many immigrants live within their borders, and how the numbers are changing over time. This makes policy recommendations particularly precarious. "We know that databases the world over are incomplete and this makes migration statistics weak. It is imperative that we improve this situation if we want to make better policies", Ron says.
Asked how much influence Ron thinks he's had on DFID's policymaking six months into his tenure, he laughs. "I'm not sure that I've actually witnessed directly policies being made during the short time I've been here, let alone influenced them", he says. "And anyway, in my experience, policies are made in negotiation with others and seldom by a small collection of people in one room."
Ron hopes that the SRF experiment will result in DFID getting better at using evidence to make decisions. "Actually, they're pretty good now", he says. DFID staff are beginning to make demands of the SRFs as they prove themselves useful. Ron wrote a background paper for DFID's contribution to the Global Forum on Migration and Development which took place in Athens in November, and has been approached by a number of Country Offices.
And what of the impact of the experiment on the Fellows? "It's hard to say this early on", he says. "It will certainly leave me with a better understanding of the practical realities of policymaking and show whether and how academics can add value in such an institutional environment."
NEXT MONTH Professor Christopher Heady, Professor of Economics, University of Kent. Special Subject: Microeconomics of public policy in relation to growth and other aspects of social well-being
RECENT TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
The global financial crisis has had a significant impact on population movements. The evidence suggests that the impact has been highly variable by region, by country and by employment sector. Some slowing of migration has been seen, along with a decline in remittances sent home by migrant workers, but not as marked or extensive as had been predicted.
But the crisis has left marks on both individuals and the countries from which they come to work.
Migrants are amongst the first to lose their jobs when unemployment rises, forcing them to return to their home countries, or from cities to the countryside (an estimated 10m people moved back to the Chinese countryside in 2008 because of manufacturing job losses in the cities). The immigration policies of many countries have tightened in response to the economic downturn, e.g. Malaysia cancelled the work permits of 55,000 workers during 2009.
Companies are both reducing the hours of work, especially in construction and manufacturing, as well as reducing rates of pay for workers. For many migrant workers who rely on overtime payments to send money home to their families, this is a particular burden.
Added to which, exchange rate fluctuations meant that households receiving remittances from family workers couldn't tell how much money they would receive each month. Remittances provide crucial financial safety nets for millions of families in the developing world, valued globally at around $338 billion (2008).