Research Support Programmes

IDEP has an existing reputation for the agenda-setting and innovative policy research which it undertook or facilitated on various aspects of the development challenges facing the countries of Africa during the 1960s into the 1970s. In the course of the 1980s and 1990s, in the context of the economic crises confronting African countries, the Institute devoted the bulk of its attention to undertaking advisory services as requested by African governments and expanding its capacity development and training activities. The changing context and agenda of global and local development call for the generation of new policy knowledges for which the revival of development research at or under the auspices of IDEP has to be a key component. Central to the research that is carried out is the determination to ensure that it is appropriate to the needs of the policy communities that animate development across the continent, it being understood that these communities are embedded primarily but not exclusively within the state system. To that extent, while the centrality of public policy making and state-led development planning drive the studies that are carried out, the policy research needs of critical non-state actors, including the private and voluntary sectors, are also taken on board in the work of the Institute. It is also important to note that the policy research work undertaken at the IDEP compliments the Institute’s training programme and response to the needs of the policy-making communities and other stakeholders.