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be brought out of isolation and join the national conversation, which could help re-establish Myanmar’s historically robust research culture.
REBUILDING TRUST
Indonesia has different challenges regarding trust. There, social science research has been politicized to support different candidates, spawning distrust of data and facts, says Inaya Rakhmani, an associate professor at the Universitas Indonesia and researcher at the Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance. And while Indonesia’s national budget for science and innovation has doubled in recent years, there are concerns that the government retains too tight control of the research agenda, limiting academic freedom. For example, they are concerned that international collaboration could be inhibited by requiring foreign academics to obtain government permits to collect data in Indonesia. Rakhmani and her colleagues recommend that funding and training be spread throughout the Indonesian archipelago, not just in a few universities in Jakarta, so that researchers throughout the country can contribute high-quality social science
research. While it may take time for that research to be used well in policymaking, mentoring individual researchers could gradually strengthen Indonesia’s research environment. “Mentoring can create momentum,” Rakhmani says. “When it is practiced on the everyday level, it builds a network.”
STEPS FORWARD
The local teams note that simply conducting the Doing Research survey generated excitement among local researchers to work together to improve the impact social science research can have in their countries. “This is the first step towards action,” Ribera says. GDN plans to secure funding to expand the program to many more countries, and facilitate comparative analysis across countries and regions. “Once we identify levers and obstacles for change at the national level,” Obino says, “we would want to understand whether there are also regional or global levers we can use to support the environment for quality social research and its impact on development.”
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The Doing Research assessments aim to systematically map the social science research landscape of developing countries, and identify how to better connect social science with policymaking.
Credit (composite): mihtiander | Galina Peshkova | 123rf
ASIA RE SEA RC H N EWS
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JAPANESE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH ON DEVELOPMENT The 2019 Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development was awarded to Emmanuel Yujuico, a senior consultant with Access Health International Philippines, for investigating how evidence-based research influences public health policy. The project was awarded first place, with US$30,000 to support the research project. Second place, with US$10,000, was awarded to Saravana Jaikumar, assistant professor at the India Institute of Management Calcutta to analyse the use of social media to produce,
disseminate and enhance uptake of development research. Third place, with US$5,000, was awarded to Ruhizal Roosli, a senior lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia to study effective implementation of web-based tools to manage reconstruction projects in South-East Asia following disasters. More than 53 proposals were submitted for the 2019 competition, which is organized by the Global Development Network with funding from the Japanese government. Since it began in 2000, the program has provided more than US$4 million in research grants supporting more than 8,000 researchers in developing countries.