Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture No. 2/07
Measuring the benefits of development research – a case study of food policy reforms in Bangladesh
Suresh C. Babu
International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA
William Reidhead
World Wildlife Fund, Geneva, Switzerland
Abstract
While the importance of research-based policy reforms in poverty
reduction efforts is increasing, so is the need for demonstrating the
cost effectiveness of research. This is particularly so in an
environment of declining foreign aid. This paper assesses the economics
of development research, using a case study of the food policy reforms
in Bangladesh. Through participatory methods, it estimates benefits of
policy reform due to the research program. It delineates the pure
benefits of research from the value added by policy outreach and
advocacy. Results of the study show that the net contribution of
research in bringing about policy reform and its impact could be as
high as 40% and that research as part of the policy reform process can
be highly cost-effective. The paper also presents a discussion of the
institutional and participatory factors that facilitate the ready
acceptance of the research outputs and suggests that such factors must
be replicated in other research programs in order to maximize the
relevance and impact of the development research.
Keywords: development research; policy reform; food policy; impact assessment; Bangladesh
JEL: Q 160
Vol. 46 (2007), No. 2: 159-182