Introducing Research into Policy: Lessons from District Studies of Dryland Development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This article describes the chief findings of research carried out in four African dryland areas to investigate the validity of the authors' ‘Machakos hypothesis’, and to derive lessons on appropriate enabling policies. The findings were subsequently submitted to in-country validation and dissemination exercises. The lessons learnt from these in regard to introducing research findings into country policy dialogues are set against the background of current discussion of this issue. The article also discusses uptake at the international level, because it tends to be at this level that development paradigms and practices are formulated and promoted into countries through donor and agency actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]