Feature

One year ago, DFID launched its first Research Strategy. The Strategy pledged to increase spending to £1bn over five years across six thematic areas: Growth, Governance in Fragile States, Health, Agriculture, Climate Change and Forward-looking research. It committed to restructuring its Research and Policy teams around the research themes to ensure research and policy inform each other. And it placed greater emphasis on communicating research evidence and getting research into use.

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ACHIEVEMENTS - STORIES

ACHIEVEMENTS - BEHIND THE SCENES

The first set of achievements - largely invisible to the outside world - were internal.

New teams were formed to reflect the new work priorities, and budgets assigned to each research area (see indicative budgets for 2010-2011 here).

Chris Whitty was appointed as the new Head of DFID Research in February 2009. His previous position as Professor of International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases confers on him a wealth of experience as both researcher and Research Manager. His ongoing work as consultant physician brings with it valuable lessons from the National Health Service's systematic use of research to inform its own policy and practice. Read about his thoughts on leading the team through the next four years here

The number of staff within DFID Research doubled, to effectively manage an increased budget and develop new programmes. Integration of the research and policy teams began. In some sectors this brought instant results, with the new Food Group's policy response to the global food crisis squarely drawing on research (listen to Jonathan Wadsworth, Senior Agriculture Advisor talk about joined-up working).

Seven full-time equivalent Senior Research Fellows were recruited (read Maggie Gill's vision of working in DFID here).

A great deal of scoping work took place, to investigate more thoroughly what kinds of research programmes DFID needs to commission (see updated Implementation Timetable for further details). A Scoping study on Conflict, State Stability and State Responsiveness was conducted, and calls for a programme will be made later this year.

A Scoping Study was also commissioned on international and regional migration, including the role of the diaspora. A call for the resulting research programme will be made later this year.

Progress was made in defining how the new programmes of collaborative research will operate - the next evolution of the Research Programme Consortiums. Budgets will be larger, greater emphasis will be on producing open access research products, and building capacity. The new calls will be made during the summer 2009.

Calls were made during the first year for a Global Climate Change Centre, and the contract will be awarded by the end of the year.

A new International Growth Centre was launched by the Secretary of State, Douglas Alexander, at the London School of Economics in December 2008 (see story here). The £32m Centre will make available some of the world's finest economists - up to 70 researchers working across ten thematic areas - to provide impartial policy advice, 'thought leadership' and conduct research on issues around growth. At least £8.6m will be ring-fenced for research over three years.

In agriculture, a Scoping Study was commissioned on Renewable Natural Resources and Growth, which is likely to lead to a programme of work during 2009.

ACHIEVEMENTS - POSITIVE OUTCOMES

Global Public Goods research doesn't deliver positive development outcomes overnight, or even over the course of a year. But significant milestones were reached to show that progress is being made, particularly from research which pre-existed the new Strategy.

The Young Lives Programme, located at Oxford University, is tracking 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, in order to understand better the causes and consequences of childhood poverty, and identify more effective policies to meet children's needs. Its research has informed the policy of national governments and international institutions, including:

• In Ethiopia, the team developed recommendations and indicators for the second Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan;
• The Government of Andhra Pradesh commissioned Young Lives to lead the consultation and drafting of its 'State Plan of Action for Children';
• In Peru, the Prime Minister has acknowledged the importance of increasing the budget for childcare services following evidence from Young Lives about children's vulnerabilities arising from the recent free trade agreement with the USA.

In the field of Health, DFID spent £48 million in health research in 2008/09. One positive outcome was the development of a new, safe and effective cure for children with malaria, launched in March 2009 by the partnership between the Medicines For Malaria Venture (MMV) and Novartis Malaria Initiatives, a private sector pharmaceutical company. The cherry-flavoured medicine "Coartem Dispersible" is the first paediatric malaria cure that is dispersible, sweet tasting and has stringent regulatory approval. At the moment, a child dies from malaria every 30 seconds and this drug has the potential to save many of these young lives.

DFID has provided MMV with £29 million for the period 2005-2015 to help them pursue the discovery, development and delivery of new, affordable anti-malarial drugs.

During the year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) joined DFID in funding Galvmed - an innovative public private partnership, initiated by DFID in 2005 to develop a range of animal vaccines, pharmaceutical and diagnostic products. In 2009, Galvmed will bring a licensed East Coast Fever vaccine to the East African market. This disease is endemic in 11 African countries, and responsible for the deaths of 1.1 million cattle every year. The combined value of this devastation is estimated at $168 million annually, a loss carried by many small farmers in some of the poorest nations of Africa. Galvmed has business plans for the development of products to help control 12 other key animal diseases between now and 2015.

Within the Sustainable Agriculture theme of work, a scoping study on Renewable Natural Resources and Growth was carried out, which is likely to result in a programme of work later in 2009. Heavy investment in the reform of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) paid dividends in December 2008, when a meeting of members voted to change its governance structure and way of doing business (see story here).

New calls for research into Combating Infectious Diseases of Livestock were made in October 2008 through DFID's jointly-funded Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) programme.

In Governance, DFID Research has provided strong evidence of the importance of effective tax systems in state-building in stable and fragile states, defined as "countries where the government cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of its people". Based on research from IDS and LSE, DFID led an international coalition of partner governments, other donors, World Bank and OECD, to strengthen the design and implementation of tax systems in Africa. The African Tax Administration Forum (and planned African Tax Institute) which emerged out of the 2008 South Africa conference on "Tax and State-building in Africa" is hoped to take forward the "state-building" approach across the continent (listen to Luke Mukubvi, Governance Advisor in the DFID Policy and Research Division talk about taking the Governance agenda forward here).

USEFUL LINKS:

The Research Strategy:

• Project Record for Research Strategy and Consultation on R4D
• Output Record on R4D
• Low Resolution Version (1.41 MB)
• High Resolution Version (2.50 MB)
• Implementation Timetable (171 KB)

DFID Working Papers:

• Working Paper Series: Climate Change
• Working Paper Series: Education
• Working Paper Series: Better Health
• Working Paper Series: Sustainable Agriculture
• Working Paper Series: Capacity Building
• Working Paper Series: Mainstreaming Gender in Research
• Working Paper Series: Economic Growth
• Working Paper Series: Political and Social Science Research
• Working Paper Series: Research Communication
• Working Paper Series: Stimulating Demand for Research

Other information:

• DFID Website
• DFID Research Strategy Page
• Research Strategy Blog
• R4D Video Interviews

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