The Research
ADRA Conference
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM:
POLITICS AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROBLEM
13 - 14 December, 2010
Murdoch University, Perth
Overview
One of the most important shifts in the thinking of policy-makers in the development field has been an increasing recognition that politics and political economy influence and shape the processes and outcomes of development policy. Amongst researchers and within the major development institutions there has been debate about how these influences operate and how they can be accommodated in policy frameworks. It is no secret that it has been difficult to translate this new awareness into concrete policy designs. This workshop aims to extend this debate both in respect to the understanding of the political dynamic and the difficulties of addressing these in policy terms.
An important basis for the workshop is the research conducted as part of the project, ‘Sustainable Demand for Governance – Political Dimensions of Change’, funded by AusAID through its Australian Development Research Awards (ADRA) programme and undertaken by researchers from Murdoch University, IISS/Erasmus University, The Netherlands, and Universitas Gajah Mada, Indonesia. A key objective is to bring the work resulting from the study into the larger debate about political economy and development policy now taking place within most national and international development agencies and banks.
We aim to bring leading researchers writing on these and associated issues and key policy makers in development institutions together with those involved in the ADRA study.
The central framework of the workshop will be a draft policy monograph that sets out the investigations and conclusions of the ADRA study and will be distributed to participants before the workshop. The key arguments will be set out in brief presentations – around 15 minutes – providing space for discussants and more general discussion. One central aim of the workshop is to draw ideas and criticisms into a final draft of the monograph. In particular, the final session will focus on a broader discussion about where research and policy goes from here.
Participants
The conference involved a range of international researchers and policy makers. 
Programme
The programme is available as a pdf
