Information for change

Information for Change Workshops

Information for Change workshops bring together individuals and organisations involved in generating, publishing, and using information for development from the Western Cape, from the wider South Africa, from the region, and from the rest of Africa.

The workshops are intended for NGO managers, resource centre organisers, librarians, academics, students, and representatives from research organisations, advocacy organisations, community development organisations and networks. The workshops offer the opportunity to learn from colleagues, share experiences and network.

2009 Workshop

Information for Change III
Publishing for Policy Impact: How researchers, activists, and policymakers could work with publishers to enhance policy change

Date: Monday 15th June 2009
Location: The Cape Town International Book Fair, The Rooftop Terrace, Cape Town International Conference Centre

Cost: Admission to the workshop is free but participants will need to pay to enter the Cape Town International Convention Centre (R50.00: students free), site of the 2009 Cape Town Book Fair. Payment will also secure entry to the Book Fair.

Registration: Details of how to register are here.

The task of communicating research findings to policymakers can be overwhelming, but is key to developing effective evidence-based policy for social change. This workshop brings together stakeholders from the research, publishing, activist/advocacy, and policymaking sectors to work out how to do it better. Presentations and discussions will focus on how publishers, working with others, can better support effective policy formulation and so achieve greater impact on policy change.

In this six-hour participatory workshop you will share experiences and initiatives with researchers, activists, policymakers, and publishers, and bring your own experience of these roles in the policy change process. The workshop will focus on the role of the publisher/disseminator in facilitating information flow between researchers, agents of policy change, and policymakers. The programme will be organised around these three main groups, and will examine three general themes: trust and authority; relevance and accessibility; and packaging and dissemination.

Theme Group	Trust and authority	Relevance and accessibility	Packaging and dissemination
Researchers	Where does researchers’ authority come from? How do publishers help build and maintain it?	How can research remain up to date and relevant? How can research output be made more accessible?	What options are there for packaging research? What is role of publisher? How is dissemination best done?
Policy change agents (PCAs)	How do PCAs establish their own trust and authority? How do publishers help build and maintain it?	How can PCAs find the most relevant research? Are there any special accessibility issues for PCAs (connectivity? language? Structure?)	How to package content so PCAs will use it. What is role of publisher? Of mass media? How do PCAs package their own material?
Policymakers (PMs)	How do PMs identify trusted sources of information? What is a trusted source? Where does authority come from?	What content do PMs look for? How up to date? How evidence-based? In what formats? Is it ‘one page of A4’ summary? Do they really want/need a big book?	Where do PMs get their information? From which sources? And through what channels? How much is direct from PCAs? How much direct from researchers?

Click here to see the full programme.

This workshop will bring together individuals and organisations involved in information for policy change in development from South Africa and the SADC region, and from the rest of Africa.
The workshop is intended for researchers, activists, those working in advocacy and policy change organisations, NGO managers, resource centre and library organisers, academics, students, and representatives from community development organisations and networks, and, of course, publishers.

Admission to the workshop is free but participants will need to pay to enter the Cape Town International Convention Centre (R50.00: students free), site of the 2009 Cape Town Book Fair. Payment will also secure entry to the Book Fair.

Financial support: The organisers cannot offer financial support to people attending the workshop.

Find out how to register for this workshop here.

Information for Change III

Publishing for Policy Impact: How researchers, activists, and policymakers could work with publishers to enhance policy change