Sharing lessons from collaborative Franco-British -West African research and policy initiatives in West Africa: relevance to rural development policy and processes

The article indicates that collaborative programmes showed very positive results in the following areas:

• the need for transformation of concepts between English and French provided important opportunities for debate on concepts and methods, helping to bring different visions of rural development closer and to build foundations upon which deeper analysis and more fruitful collaboration can be developed
• the added value of having combined Franco-British steering committees including donor and stakeholder representatives for programmes covering the West African region as this provides comparative perspectives
• the importance of taking a regional perspective on emerging issues in rural developments in West Africa

The article makes the following recommendations:

• there needs to be a greater co-ordination and coherence between the activities of donors
• ad hoc collaboration between donors and research could be possible on themes of common interest
• continue to work with and strengthen existing structures and networks, beginning at the national level, with work to enhance internal policy dialogue and identify a clear national demand for interventions
• programmes must now demonstrate how they contribute to achieving the International Development Targets
• there need to be modes for better dissemination of research findings to stakeholders and decision makers need to be developed, in order to ensure that investments in rural development initiatives count
• there is increased need to find innovative ways of disseminating the results of collaborative research programmes and policy initiatives at the international, regional, national and local levels. The latter presents a significant challenge and requires information presented in a format accessible to local users (for example, use of meetings, radio, training modules and integration into farmers’ organisation capacity building processes). There is also a need to establish channels by which the results of such initiatives can be fed into EC discussions and shared among member states and other EC actors

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