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Bridging the Gap Between Research and Policy Making in the Palestinian Territories: a Stakeholders' Analysis

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Bridging the Gap Between Research and Policy Making in the Palestinian Territories: a Stakeholders' Analysis Joseph De Voir and Alaa Tartir Bridging the gap between research and policy making in the Palestinian Territories: a stakeholders' analysis New book cover Original citation: De Voir, Joseph and Tartir, Alaa (2009) Bridging the gap between research and policy making in the Palestinian Territories : a stakeholders' analysis. Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) , Ramallah, Palestine. © 2009 The Authors This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/50317/ Available in LSE Research Online: July 2013 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s submitted version of the book section. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. erritories Bridging the Gap Between Research and Policy Making In the Palestinian Territories: A Stakeholders’ Analysis Bridging the Gap Between Research and Policy Making In the Palestinian T Joseph DeVoir Alaa Tartir FOREWARD The following study has its origins in a simple question: “why is there so little economic and social policy research conducted in the Palestinian Territories and why is the research that already exists not fully utilized by Palestinian policy makers?” There are numerous possible answers to this question. It could be that the available research is of poor quality or even that it is the “wrong” sort of research. Alternatively, it may be that effective research is conducted but not disseminated effectively. An equally feasible explanation is that sound policy is undermined by the political environment; making Palestinian public policy purely reactive, constantly striving to meet the challenges of the latest crisis? This study attempts to answer the question posed above, but also, explore means of remedying this situation. Information regarding research in the Palestinian Territories is patchy at best. According to data from the Ministry of Higher Education, the number of academic staff in the 11 universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (excluding the Al-Quds Open University) totals approximately 3,682. Only 10 of these, however, are fully involved in policy research. A recent survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimates that there are a total of 992 researchers in the West Bank, representing 363 in full-time employment. Yet, in 2008, this seemingly large research contingent registered a mere 2 patents and 3 citation indexes. The same survey estimates total annual expenditure on research to be $11 million, while another survey (by ARIJ, an applied research institute) puts the figure at a dismal $4 million. All seven development plans designed by the Palestinian Authority since its foundation in 1994 stress the strategic goal of developing human capital and building a knowledge-based economy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WB&GS). This objective further illustrates the need to answer the question posed by this study. Evidence from both the developed and the developing world suggests that, without the establishment of stronger links between the policy making community and the research sector, building an internationally competitive and knowledge-based economy will prove highly problematic. The following work analyses the policy making environment in the Palestinian Territories and identifies the reasons behind the cleft that exists between policy and research. It evaluates the problem from both the policy i making and the research side of the equation. Based on this, and drawing on the experiences of a number of other states, the study puts forward a number of policy recommendations to bridge the gap between research and policy making. One of the primary recommendations made is for the creation of “a Knowledge Bank”; an electronic library capable of collating as many reports, books, articles, monographs and studies about Palestinian economic and social development as possible. The resulting library will be made available to all concerned parties. MAS institute has committed itself to realizing this proposal; preliminary steps for the library’s creation have already been taken. This research has been generously supported by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. I would like, on behalf of MAS Institute, to express my sincere gratitude to the FES for its continuous support of our research programmes. Numan Kanafani Director General ii Table of Contents 1. Introduction and Methodology 1 1.1 Problem Statement 1 1.2 Objectives 3 1.3 Methodology 3 1.3.1 Methodology of Data Gathering 4 2. International Experiences in Bridging the Gap 7 2.1 Overview 7 2.2 International Models of Bridging the Gap 8 2.2.1 The Congressional Research Services of the United States Congress 8 2.2.2 Bridging Research and Policy in the UK 10 2.2.3 Research-based Policy Making in South Korea 12 2.2.4 The Case of Germany 15 2.3 Concluding Remarks 17 3. The Policy-Making Environment in the Palestinian Territories 19 3.1 From Civil Administration to the PLO 19 3.1.1 The Paris Protocol and the Limitations on Policy Space 20 3.2 From Palestine Liberation Organisation to Palestinian Authority 21 3.2.1 From the Palestinian Legislative Council to the Emergency Government 22 3.2.2 A Perpetual ‘State’ of Dependency 23 4. Identifying the Gap 27 4.1 Lack of Capacity in the Policy Making Arena 27 4.1.1 Political Instability 27 4.1.2 Institutional Incompetence 28 4.1.3 Individual Incompetence 29 4.1.4 Individual Agendas 30 4.2. Lack of Capacity in the Research Sector 31 4.2.1 Inadequate Research Training in the Palestinian Education System 31 4.2.2 The Emigration of Expertise (The Brain Drain) 32 4.2.3 An Inability to Properly Communicate or “Package” Research 33 4.2.4 Lack of Research Capacity in the PA 34 4.3 The Impact of International Aid on Domestic Research 34 4.3.1 Demand Driven Research 35 4.3.2 Setting the Agenda 36 iii 5. Bridging the Gap 39 5.1 The PA as Patron of Research 39 5.2 Prioritizing Education in Development 40 5.3 Formalizing the Bridge between Policy Making and Independent Research 40 5.4 Knowledge Transfer 41 5.5 From Reactive to Proactive 42 5.6 Reactivating the Parliamentary Research Unit 42 5.7 National Research Database - ‘Knowledge Bank’ 43 Bibliography 45 Appendices 49 I. Political Timeline 53 II. Case Study I: Policy Making in the 12th Palestinian Government 56 III. Case Study II: The PRDP and the Ownership Revolution 61 IV. Mapping the Palestinian Research Capacity 68 V. Palestinian Policy Making Structures 79 VI. The Mechanisms of International Aid Coordination 93 VII. Proposal for the Development of an Electronic Library ‘Knowledge-Bank’ Specializing in Socio-Economic Research 99 iv List of Tables Table 1: German Federal Funding to the German Research Foundation 16 Table 2: Obstacles and the Factors that Limit the Benefits for Private Enterprises from the Output of Scientific Research (2007) 32 Table 3: Palestinian NGO Funding Sources (1999 & 2006) 35 Table 4: Factors and Determinants Prompting Research by Institutions (2007) 36 Table 5: Sources of Funding and Support to Research (2007) 37 Table 6: Palestinian NGO Funding Sources (1999 & 2006) 37 Table 7: Degree of Benefit from Research Output (2007) 37 List of Figure Figure 1: The Linear Policy Making Process 7 Figure 2: The Korean Assembly Policy Making Process 13 Figure 3: The Structure of the National Assembly Research Services 14 Figure 4: Aid Disbursements by Type and Country Grouping 2005- 2007 24 Figure 5: Commitments versus Disbursements 1998 – 2008 (1000’s USD) 25 List of Boxes Box 1: Independent American Research Institutes 9 Box 2: Standing Committees in the UK Parliament 11 Box 3: The TIM and the PEGASE 26 v vi Acronyms AHLC – Ad Hoc Liaison Committee AMC – Aid Management and Coordination BZU – Bir Zeit University CDS – Center for Development Studies CG – Consultative Group CRS – Congressional Research Service DAC – Development Assistance Committee DFG – German Research Foundation DoP – Declaration of Principles DSP – Development Studies Program EC – European Commission ESSP – Emergency Services Support Project EU – European Union IDB – Islamic Development Bank IMF – International Monetary Fund INGO – International Non Governmental Organization JLC – Joint Liaison Committee LACC – Local Aid Coordination Committees LACS – Local Aid Coordination Secretariat LDF – Local Development Forum MAS – The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute MoEHE – Ministry of Education and Higher Education MoF – Ministry of Finance MoH – Ministry of Health MoI – Ministry of Interior MoP – Ministry of Planning MoPAD – Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development MoPIC – Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation MoSA – Ministry of Social Affairs MTDP – Medium-Term Development Plan NARS – National Assembly Research Service NGO – Non Governmental Organization OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OCHA – The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OoP – The Office of the President
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