Paper short abstract:

Donor agencies make decisions based mostly on political, technical and administrative factors. But how do Australian bureaucrats at DFAT engage with research expertise? The Developmental Leadership Program explores this through interviews with officials and researchers conducted during the pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

Decision making in international development bureaucracies is driven by a variety of political, technical, and administrative factors, and is the outcome of complex interactions between these domains. Reviews of the integration of the Australian Agency for International Development into the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have pointed out that post-merger, a substantial amount of development expertise, leadership, and capacity exited government. With this shift, it is argued that decisions on aid policy and programming have been increasingly determined in closer coordination with the government’s foreign policy priorities and objectives. Do these circumstances still leave room for bureaucrats to engage with research expertise emanating from outside DFAT, and how, if at all, does this contribute to shaping development policy and programs? This paper presents emerging findings from the Developmental Leadership Program (DLP)’s embedded research impact project. Using data from interviews with DFAT officers and local staff, and with researchers and managing contractors closely engaging with DFAT in their respective contexts, it explores the ways in which research is produced, disseminated, captured, commissioned, contextualised, and consumed across the aid ecosystem. It examines the framing of research, the role of leadership, networks and coalitions, the impact of the pandemic, and the institutional incentives and bounded rationality of development actors. Finally, it presents recommendations for producers and consumers of research on ways of working that can ensure that research and expertise is valued and used effectively in policy and programming, despite the complex political economy and organisational culture of donor agencies.