Begin with the End in Mind

1. Begin with the End in Mind Session 2

2. Session Objectives • Understand the value of a communication plan in improving the use of research results • Understand the importance of stakeholders in the research and research use processes • Introduce the Stakeholder Analysis Matrix • Establish the criteria for meaningful research questions

3. Who Will Use Study Results? • Developing a communication plan • Ensures communication activities are budgeted • Identifies key audience – decision maker and other consumers of information • Identifies appropriate communication method for each audience

4. Developing a Communication Plan Different stakeholder audiences • Have different perspectives • Need/want different information • Need information at different levels of complexity • Have different intensities of interest

5. Communication Plan – 4 Questions 1. What are the objectives of the communication strategy? 2. Who are the target audiences? 3. What are appropriate channels of communication? 4. How will you assess information use?

6. Developing a Communication Strategy • What are the objectives of the communication strategy? • Multiple research questions often included in a study • Identify key potential findings and align them with appropriate target audiences

7. 2. Who Are the Target Audiences?

8. Role of Stakeholders in the Research Process

9. What Is a Stakeholder? • Any person or group with a particular interest or ‘stake’ in your research • Providers / Implementers • Policy makers • Program managers • Partners • Funding agencies • Beneficiaries • Professional associations

10. Context of Decision Making Information/data Stake-holders Decisions

11. Involving Stakeholders Throughout the Research Process Relevance of data Ownership of data Appropriate dissemination of data Use of data

12. Implications of Expanded Stakeholder Involvement Additional actors in the research process can: • Increase timelines • Add complexity to the process • Increase study cost

13. When to Involve Stakeholders in Research Activities • Study planning • Study question development • Protocol development • Data collection • Data interpretation & recommendation development • Dissemination • Assessing effects

14. How to Involve Stakeholders? • Study planning • Stakeholder analysis • Communication plan development • Study question development • Protocol development • Data collection • Data interpretation & recommendation development • Dissemination • Assessing effects

15. Stakeholder Analysis Matrix

16. Stakeholder Analysis Matrix

17. How to Involve Stakeholders? • Study planning • Stakeholder analysis • Communication plan development • Research question development • Protocol development • Data collection • Data interpretation & recommendation development • Dissemination • Assessing effects

18. Formulating Meaningful Research Questions

19. Identifying, Assessing, Refining, and Prioritizing Questions Refined Question Initial Question Final Question • Important • Priority • Actionable • Data gap • Not already underway • Answerable • Method available • Reasonable time period

20. Criteria for Meaningful Research Questions Important: Could the answer to the question lead to a policy or program change that would have a large effect on the population in question? Priority: Does the question address a current and pertinent issue? Actionable: Can the results of the research be used to identify clear policy or program recommendations? Answerable: Are data available, or can data be collected, to address the question?

21. Let’s Look at an Example Research topic: Number of children borne by a woman (parity) & contraceptive use Research problem: Do women with few (or no) children have a lower demand for family planning? Research question: How does contraceptive use vary by number of existing children among married women? Hypothesis: Low parity married women will have lower contraceptive prevalence rates.

22. Key Messages • Identify your target audiences and how you will communicate your research findings • Involve stakeholders throughout the process, not just at the beginning and the end; this facilitates uptake of results • Develop research questions that fill an information gap so that your research is linked to program/policy development and improvement

23. Small Group Activity 2: Formulating Meaningful Research Questions & Identifying Stakeholders

24. Small Group Activity 2: Instructions • Select a reporter to record the group work on flip chart paper and report back to the plenary. Locate Exercise 2 worksheet. • Develop a hypothesis for the research question assigned to your group. The hypothesis is the provisional theory guiding the research (see Exercise 2 worksheet – part 1). • Identify the primary program or policy implication for the research question assigned to your group. The program implication will be the action undertaken if the hypothesis is supported by the data. • Assuming the hypothesis is correct, what additional questions need to be answered to implement the recommendation of the study effectively? • Assuming the hypothesis is notcorrect, what additional information would help to interpret the results? • Considering where the research falls in the program-policy continuum, what stakeholders need to be involved in the research activity? Use the Stakeholder Analysis Matrix to guide this discussion (see Exercise 2 worksheet – part 2). When filling out the stakeholder analysis, complete only columns 1–3 (stakeholder name, description, and role).

25. Small Group Activity 2: Report Back • Each group has 10 minutes to discuss what they found challenging when developing research questions and identifying stakeholders, and how they overcame these challenges.

26. MEASURE Evaluation is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and is implemented by the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with Futures Group International, ICF Macro, John Snow, Inc., Management Sciences for Health, and Tulane University. The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.