Established in 2005, and now in its second phase, the Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET) has built a regionally owned knowledge-building community to support decision-makers and help steer policy towards greater sustainability. It is financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).
The SUMERNET research is diverse but all closely focused on pressing concerns in the Greater Mekong Region, covering topics such as the implications of trans-boundary fish trade, urbanization in once-remote areas, contract farming, and water-related climate change risks, among many others.
Along with scientific reports, SUMERNET projects are all expected to produce policy briefs and engage in media outreach, but translating the research findings into clear, actionable messages for policy-makers and the public can be challenging. On 23-24 November, SEI-Asia hosted a workshop to help the teams learn how to effectively reach these audiences, providing opportunities both to learn directly from policy-makers and journalists and to get hands-on training from local experts.
Knowing your audience
The first day included a panel with Dr. Wijarn Simachaya, deputy permanent secretary for Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; Ngan Le, acting chief of the Trade Office in the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok; and Dr. Surachai Sathitkunarat, executive director of the APEC Center for Technology Foresight, also in Bangkok.
“The way you present information to policy-makers is very important,” Dr. Simachaya stressed. “You need to use clear, easy-to-understand language.”
Le took the concept one step further, noting that researchers “need to sell policy like you would sell goods: be short, simple, clear and attractive.”
Dr. Sathitkunarat encouraged researchers to learn about political figures’ backgrounds and existing policies, and also find groups that could influence them. This, he said, will improve the chances of proposed policies being taken up.
“‘Connections’ is not a dirty word,” he said. “You need strong stakeholder involvement for policy to be a success.”
Taking messages to the people
If communicating with policy-makers is challenging, reaching the general public may be even more difficult for scientists accustomed to speaking in specialized language. As one researcher put it during a panel with journalists on the second day: “We find it difficult to write in a ‘layman’ language easily understandable to our target readers.” Another researcher observed that the media did not seem to be interested in agricultural or environmental issues.
Johanna Son, of Inter Press Service, made it clear that language is only part of the challenge. The way the whole message is framed has to be different from what researchers may be used to doing in their academic publications:
“Imagine you are explaining your research to your neighbour,” she said. “You wouldn’t start with your research methodology; you would start by asking yourself: ‘What’s the problem, what’s the story?’.”
The researchers were also encouraged to find ways to link research issues to those popularized by social activists or civil society groups, or to current concerns and topics in the news, such as food prices.
Reuters journalist Thin Lei Win assured the researchers that they needn’t fear journalists. If they are ready to build relationships and “give something to get something”, even without a report in hand, they can reach a wider audience for their research.
Putting lessons into practice
The 10 projects in SUMERNET’s second phase are coming to their conclusion, so the lessons learned at the workshop will be applied right away. In fact, in hands-on sessions during the workshop, the researchers wrote drafts of policy briefs based on their upcoming reports as well as of press releases and articles they intend to send to journalists.
After the workshop, many of the researchers said they felt much more confident about getting their message across to the wider public. They also took away important lessons: “In the past we have sought to map out our stakeholders and engage with policymakers early on,” one participant said. “Now I can see that we must do much more of this to turn our research into policy.”
