2.4.3. Researcher as advocate

Not all researchers are good at or interested in actually doing advocacy work. For many with a more academic or analytical focus, the research, analysis, and writing process is where their talent and interest lie and venturing from that world is not something they are willing to do.¹ For others, being involved or even leading the advocacy efforts through the softening up and interest bargaining phases is also a key part of their job. However, many policy researchers complain about the multiple roles that they are asked to play, for example, researcher, writer, presenter, lobbyist, facilitator, and media representative. One researcher shared this frustration, memorably saying: “You have to be like Erin Brokovich, no? I said, come on, I’m a researcher.”²

For those who are willing and interested in playing a central role in the advocacy efforts, the challenge is to find time to fulfill all roles while continuing to work on other projects. However, the good news is that such policy research and advocacy is usually conducted in teams and in fact, the teams are often selected based on the range of specific research and advocacy skills and knowledge necessary to develop effective research and influence decisionmaking. An example of such a focused policy research/advocacy team was put together by the Centre for European Policy Studies to convince Ukraine to sign a free-trade agreement with the EU.³ Members of the team were chosen specifically for the following purposes:

• one person to do econometrics
• one person who knew the internal workings of the Ukrainian government
• one person who had specific business sector knowledge and had access to all the World Bank networks
• one person who was an agricultural economist (a key sector) and access to UN networks
• one person who had understanding of and access to the Ukrainian business sector

These people were selected in addition to the team leader and a number of others, but it shows the thinking that helps in putting together a research/advocacy team.

For those researchers not so intrigued by advocacy, there is an important dividing line which they need to consider: policy research is not conducted in an ivory tower and the legitimacy of the researcher and his/her organization (not to mention the advocacy campaign itself) is dependent on the foundation of a sound research project. If others outside of the research team become involved or are leading the advocacy efforts, it is rare that they will be able to defend questions on the research from other experts. As a minimum, researchers must stay involved to the extent that the legitimacy of the research and its findings are not undermined. This may simply involve leading the push among a group of experts who you already know and are comfortable working with, to playing a support/advisory role in all phases of advocacy.