Research has great potential to help achieve better development outcomes. In the last few years, development and research impact assessment spaces have been areas of growing interest and engagement for Sustineo. This is both on a project basis, as well as seeking to contribute to a broader discussion on how researchers – from university and beyond – can do their work better and, ultimately, with greater impact.
The Research for Development Impact Network is a collaboration of Australian universities and non-government organisations working in the international development space. Through supporting collaboration between universities and NGOs, the network is seeking to support three important elements of effective research – ethical research practice, cross-sector partnerships, and update and use of evidence in policy and practice.
The RDI Network have a range of insightful and practical resources for helping researchers to align with these three elements. In particular, we have found their resources related to effective ethical research to be useful, as well as some of the guidance provided by their outline of ethics processes in the Asia and Pacific regions.
While the private sector has not typically been as actively involved in the Network, in the last few months, Sustineo’s Executive Manager (Research), Tom Sloan, has been an observer to the Research Development Impact (RDI) Network Steering Committee. In the July edition of the RDI Newsletter, Tom was profiled as part of the ‘Meet the Network’ section. For more information, see here.
Working across sectors is a critical part of addressing complex issues in the international development space. The RDI Network is a valuable contribution towards making this happen, and we are grateful for the opportunity to both learn from and contribute to their work.
Further information
If you are interested in the past work that we have completed in impact assessment and research see here and here.
If you would like to discuss our experience or work in this space further, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with Tom at tom.sloan@sustineo.com.au. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for more posts like this!