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13
inFluenCing poliCy and
adaptation
Strategic stakeholder engagement in
the agricultural sector in Tanzania
Kassim Kulindwa and Baruani Mshale
introduction
Although scientific research on climate-change impacts on the agricultural sector
in Africa is accumulating, applying the results to improve adaptive capacity,
especially among smallholder farmers, still lags behind. This is evidenced by
the increases in climate-change impacts on agricultural productivity (see e.g.
UNEP 2011; Hepworth 2010; Ziervogel and Zermoglio 2009; Fischer et al.
2005; Mendelsohn 2000). Some scholars have argued that this research-policy
disconnect is a result of misalignment in the timing and duration needed to
undertake proper research, versus the need to deliver policy recommendations,
resulting in slow and incomplete processes of translating scientific evidence
into appropriate policies in developing countries (see e.g. Aaserud et al. 2005;
Hennink and Stephenson 2005; Hanney et al. 2003; Stephenson and Hennink
2002; Walt 1994). Others hold that poor communication between researchers
and policy-makers further widens the science-policy gap, particularly as regards
dissemination after the research project has ended
.
On the one hand, policy-
makers contend that scientific information is usually presented in academic
formats that are inaccessible to them; on the other hand, researchers feel that
policy-makers lack understanding and respect for research, and that this limits
the use of research in policy formulation (Hennink and Stephenson 2005;
Stephenson and Hennink 2002). Yet others have argued that although the
publication of research findings is important, this is generally not sufficient to
change policy and practice (Aaserud et al. 2005; O'Brien and Vogel 2003). As
O'Brien and Vogel explain, '…even if perfect forecasts were disseminated in
an optimal manner, there remain significant factors constraining their use and
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