Beyond the Tyranny of Measurable Outcomes Godwin R. Murunga - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Beyond the Tyranny of Measurable Outcomes

Godwin R. Murunga Executive Secretary C O D E S R I A

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

SIDA Science Days

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

What does the story of Ebola in West Africa (2013 to 2015) reveal about the contrast between investing in “research” as

• pposed to directly investing in “poverty alleviation”?

01

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

At the core of the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa in 2013 was:-

• a health problem (medical intervention);
• an attack on social relations (socio-political

intervention);

• EVD attacked the capacity of people to move,

stay in contact;

• undermined the funeral procedures, customs

and traditions that people observe.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

attacked the idea and practice of care; making it impossible for people to feel comfortable with each other and those already infected. caring became dangerous: made it impossible to greet someone, to touch someone, visit a friend

• r do anything for someone even if you cared

about their illness.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

At the end of the day, the army of health workers were left asking for anthropologists, sociologists, historians, etc. WHY?

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

• EVD fine case for investing in SSH research;
• need for historians? For long, they know

that disease causes panic and anxiety; that governments go for measures (fumigation, cordon sanitaire or quarantine); that …

• … often end up exacerbating the problem

rather than resolving it.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

• EVD revealed the extent to which political

economy (context) is critical for effective intervention to control the spread of a disease;

• Though reported in Senegal, Nigeria, Mali,

UK, US, Italy, Spain, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, only in the last 3 did it have its most devastating effect. WHY?

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

In other words, dealing with a health dilemma needs more than a medical response to be effective; a medical response without a social understanding can be catastrophic in the short and long term; a medical response with adequate social understanding helps prepare for contingency and assures potential for success.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqGA1ldvYE

02

All human problems have social and political dimensions irrespective of whether they are biological, physical or natural

SIDA Science Days

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

• Poverty, too, is a social problem; calls

for socio-political interventions;

• CODESRIA’s study of SAPs showed

that as a social problem, poverty reflects a weakness in human relations, a failure of reciprocity.

• there is no precise formula to address

this breakdown in reciprocity.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

Poverty expresses a failure to share (redistribution); a lack of will to address inequalities; at the end, it reflects poor or unsustainable economic thinking. When such economics are packaged as international agenda for development, they become the cause of long term disaster.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

CODESRIA Publications on SAPs: Our Continent, Our Future; Between Liberalisation and Oppression

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

• Redistribution, political will and bad

economics centre on human relations;

• calls for an understanding of overall

context in which workable interventions to reduce poverty can be mounted;

• Not all problems can be resolved by

throwing money at them; all problems become less threatening when they are properly understood (research).

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

Developing that understanding through funding research is a sure way

• f dealing with the stress and adversity

such problems cause; and a sure way

• f enhancing resilience; resilience is

based on knowledge, not on guesswork.

03

Basic research in the SSH and policy action- the CODESRIA Experience; Demonstrated that policy actors can and do respond to research findings in the SSH and can adjust policy based on: i. the strength of the findings of the research & ii. how vigorous and in what places research outputs are presented.

SIDA Science Days

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

CODESRIA research outputs useful in pushing back against policies that otherwise were potentially or actually disastrous to society [RFGI; SAPs]. Crucial - this was research designed to expand knowledge, challenge existing assumptions.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

Research on democratic governance - two major contributions:

• 1. getting intellectually inclined policy actors to use research to

policy purposes (CODESRIA CARDs) and,

• 2. getting academics who shift to active politics or into policy

arena to use their knowledge and experience to influence policy;

• 3. e.g. Peter Anyang Nyong’o in Kenya; Charles Soludo in

Nigeria; Mamadou Coulibaly Cote d’Ivoire; Henri Ossebi in Congo); 2014 Elections in Nigeria/CODESRIA DG Institute 2019

04

Investment in research is investment in the capacity of institutional (be they governments, CSOs, Regional or International organisations) responses to either KNOW or simply to UNDERSTAND the social, economic and political circumstances in which problems emanate and need to be resolved;

SIDA Science Days

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

• important to avoid the tyranny/dictates of

immediate measurable outcomes;

• it is not only that which can be measured that is

useful;

• most relevant SSH research output are not

measurable in quantitative terms; they are the product of long term investment in basic research and their value rests in the fact that research findings (knowledge) cumulated over time.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

Investment in knowledge requires asking relevant questions; knowledge depends on finding suitable balance of interactions between organisations, communities and individuals where social problems like poverty exists; Thus, capacity to interact is important; but capacity for responsive interaction is a higher level that encourages self-knowledge, self-reliance and avoids dependency.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

05

Ultimately, investment in basic research is the most critical part for all forms of knowledge; basic research is the forte of CODESRIA

SIDA Science Days

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

• ultimate aim of investing in research is NOT just to

resolve pressing societal problems with evidence of measurable outcomes; it is to create awareness, develop capacity for understanding and foster and sustain self-reliance;

• After all, what is development if it is not “something

that people must do for themselves, although it can be facilitated by the help of others.” (Claude Ake, 1996:125)

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

For CODESRIA:

• ur key is to create a community of

scholarship and policy actors; driven by an unceasing desire to understand communities in Africa both from

• its pan-African anchor but
• with an adequate appreciation of the

continents diversity and complexity

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

In CODESRIA

• We do not minimise the value of any

branch of knowledge; or…

• the worth of any intellectual

endeavour or investment by counter- poising one area of against the other;

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

Poverty alleviation cannot and should not be counter-poised with research. If it were possible to eliminate poverty among a people who have no clear understanding of themselves and how their being interacts with the realities of others outside their communities, then the contrast would be justifiable.

CODESRIA

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

executive.secretary@codesria.org

Thank You