The research institutions that focus on applied social reseach must define the minimum of ethical and professional standards. Thus they will contribute to development and professionalization of researching public policies in BiH. Lately, reserching public policies has been gaining momentum in our country. There are more and more research centers, institutes, NGOs and independent researchers active in this area. Precisely the influence of of research to public policies was the topic of the second meeting of the working group for ethics and standards of the quality of social researches held as a part of the event “Can Research Influence Public Policies? Between Political Will and a Strategic Approach to Research and Advocacy”. In the introductory part of the event a presentation of the draft for ethical and professional standards/principles and guidelines which were the focus of the working group formed based on the convictions of the ANALITIKA team was held. Amila Dedi?, the representative of the Institute for Youth Development KULT, is a member of the working group, since the Institute is recognized as one of the more included centers for researching public policies in BiH that offers educational programs in this area.
During the presentation at the event the members of the working group briefly addressed the participants of the event emphasizing the importance of adopting and implementation of these standards for further development and professionalization of social researching in BiH.
There are 3 basic goals:
· Support for the professionalization of researching public policies: The presented ethical standards of the quality of researching public policies, which are a result of the engagement of the working group comprised of representatives from 16 research institutions from BiH. The aim of promoting these standards is to incite professionalization and improve the quality of researching public policies in BiH.
· Understanding the preconditions for development of researching public policies: The second goal of the event was to incite the discussion on connecting researching public policies with decision-makers and the challenges and problems in achieving influence to decision-makers and to concrete public policies. Starting with a defined problem, on this occassion we heard presentations of several researchers and activists who shared their experiences of attempts to exchange public policies in the context of BiH, after which a discussion was held with the participants.
This panel discussion is a part of the attempts to incite thinking and conversation on the key issues and challenges in development of area of researching public policies in general.
· Connecting the researchers with researching organizations: Finally, another goal of this event was to introduce representatives of organizations that focus on researching public policies and/or social researching in BiH, and to potentially open the area for their connection and possible cooperation.
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