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actors and/or institutions that attend meetings intended to bring actors together.
Those who attend the meetings as representatives of their institutions may
sometimes change from one meeting to the next, causing inconsistency and loss
of continuity and institutional memory of the proceedings. This is even more
detrimental to the intended objective of the interactive policy process, where
there are no reporting-back mechanisms for representatives to their relevant
organizations after the meetings.
summary and recommendations
In this chapter we set out to investigate whether the politics of interactions
during the policy process in terms of power relations and interests of relevant
actors can help to narrow the gap between research and policy, and action for
improved adaptation to climate change. We analysed whether and how PAR as an
incremental research model can provide a departure from the 'business as usual'
research processes. We deployed the three-lens approach to identify the actors
involved in generating and applying knowledge for climate-change adaptation,
their interests and the narratives employed in advancing their arguments, and
the power relations among actors interacting through multiple policy spaces
from the local to the national.
The answer to our research question proved to be in the affirmative:
participation and interactions of relevant actors during the research process
in terms of their interests and power relations can indeed contribute towards
narrowing the gap, to facilitate better adaptation to climate change. The fact
that there existed both shared narratives among actors as well as competing
and contested narratives was a good starting point for multi-actor negotiation
regarding climate-change adaptation in the agricultural sector. The existence
of multiple competing and contested narratives and power relations between
actors further served to test and strengthen the various interests and positions
of different actors. Moreover, the use of existing and newly created multiple
policy spaces, from the local to national level, has provided important avenues
for individual and collaborative strategizing aimed at addressing adaptation to
the impacts of climate change in Tanzania. The recognition and involvement of
these actors from different levels in a collaborative participatory manner helped
to make clear their interests, and contributed to making project outcomes more
relevant to their interests and positions. Involving relevant stakeholders at the
district/local government level through the farm field school and the DMF
promoted ownership of the research process as well as results, and facilitated
more rapid adoption of research recommendations.
One important prerequisite for the success of the RPA process is getting
robust results from research. If the scientific information generated by the
researchers and disseminated to users is incorrect or too vague, this may lead to
considerable scepticism and loss of trust, with far-reaching consequences. This
underscores the importance of getting the science right.
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