Knowledge, policy and power in international development: a practical framework for improving policy

Good policy is not generated simply by increasing the amount of research on a particular topic - there are complex issues to navigate to ensure that the best available knowledge is sourced, interpreted and used to further development goals. This background note illustrates a four-fold framework for analysing the interface between knowledge, policy and practice, namely:

• political context features that cut across state types to varying degrees and that shape knowledge-policy interactions (including spaces for participation, informal politics, constraints on power, and the ability to absorb change)
• the relative strength of actors involved in knowledge production and policy-making, the distribution of their interests on the issue and the interplay of values, beliefs and credibility
• the salience of the different types of knowledge generated and sought
• processes of knowledge interaction – those processes that mediate between sources of knowledge and policy decisions and that can be facilitated by so-called ‘knowledge intermediaries’