Te Peru Economic Research Consorium (CIE in Spanish, he predecessor o CIES) originaed a heend o he 1980s amids poliical and economic insabiliy. During his ime, Peru grappled no only wihunprecedened recession and hyperinaion bu also wih he mos violen guerrilla insurgency in heregion. Tis siuaion was worsened by ucuaing Sae approaches o macroeconomic managemen anddeepening povery. I was wihin his conex ha IDRC and he Canadian Inernaional Developmen Agency (CIDA) agreed o nance ve Peruvian research cenres o join as a consorium in order o conducapplied economic research and atemp o preven more social science researchers rom leaving he counry.CIE’s original mission was o generae applied research, build he capaciies o is researchers, promoedialogue among researchers and improve he qualiy o policy debae. Aer en years, CIE had esablishedis credibiliy and he Consorium’s sakeholders viewed is resuls in posiive erms. Te 1990s broughgreaer macroeconomic sabiliy and Peru enered a period o impressive economic growh. Economicgrowh did no, however, ranslae ino social equiy. High raes o povery, unequal disribuion o wealh,and wide social gaps sill persised.Tis conex also presened challenges or research or developmen: he scarciy o governmen resourcesor social science research mean ha research, including ha o he Consorium, depended heavily onexernal unding. In addiion, he public invesmen in eriary educaion had creaed a gap in he researchcapaciy o Peru’s public and privae universiies wih a marked dierence beween hose in he capial ciy o Lima and hose in he provinces.Under he backdrop o his conexual change, he susainabiliy o CIE’s exising model came underquesion. IDRC and CIDA worked wih Consorium members o creae a new orm o collaboraion andgovernance. Tis new plan or parnership included:he addiion o social policy issues o he research agenda; ‘CIE’ became ‘CIES’

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a hrus o have research resuls considered by policymakers, as Peru did no have a radiion o

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evidence-based policymaking and evaluaion; and,a shi o research gran allocaion hrough compeiions rom is original pro raa basis.

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Responding to changes

According o he case sudy, IDRC’s suppor helped CIES become he well-respeced insiuion i is oday.I now has more han hree dozen members, including privae and public universiies, privae consulingrms, non-governmenal organizaions and governmen insiuions, and he Consorium is involved in

Capaciy Developmenor Research:Sraegic Evaluaion

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE

Strengthening the Core and the Periphery:

Organizaional Case Sudy o he Peru Economic and Social ResearchConsorium (CIES) by Karina Rojas and Mariane Arsenaul

IDRC support to the CIES demonstrates how the Centre can act as a catalyst and a facilitator for a network that brings together multiple research and political perspectives.

- 2 -a wide range o addiional aciviies such as raining, seminars and he publicaion o books and journals.CIES has developed an array o suppor services o srenghen he research capaciy o bohis member organizaions and heir associaed researchers. Tese include menoring youngerresearchers and less experienced researchers (oen rom he provinces) hroughou he researchprocess, raining researchers, providing inernship/research awards, promoing cooperaion amongcenres, implemening specic projecs wih unding rom oher donors and providing services ois members such as bibliographic research, publicaion disseminaion, and negoiaing access odaabases.Te sudy noes ha he Execuive Ofce’s adminisraive capaciy has also been enhanced. I hasacquired he abiliy o mobilise addiional nancial resources and o manage hose resources usingincreasingly sophisicaed sysems. As CIES unding grew and became more diversied, IDRC/CIDA unding ell rom 76% o he CIES nancial resources in 2000 o 51% in 2006.Srenghening he core has helped improve he organizaional capaciies o parner cenres,paricularly in he provinces. Te long-erm suppor or gran compeiions has allowedorganizaions o plan heir research agenda, in some cases esablish and build a rack record orheir research program, and recrui young researchers and analyss. Te evaluaors ound ha winning a CIES compeiion gives credibiliy o he compeing organizaion and may lead o ohersources o unding. A he sysems level, CIES has buil a body o Peruvian research and knowledge, and preserved acriical mass o researchers acive in he counry, creaing a more enabling research environmen.

Facilitating public debate

Srenghening CIES has suppored he developmen o closer ies o public insiuions and greaeropporuniies o inuence public policy, concluded he case sudy. In 2003, or insance, CIESsigned an agreemen wih he counry’s congress o provide echnical suppor and consuling oncurren issues o he Parliamenary Research Cenre (CIP, by is Spanish acronym). In 2006, CIESheld workshops wih congressional commitees on dra laws on he legislaive agenda. IndividualConsorium researchers are also regularly called upon o direcly advise high-ranking ofcialsand o paricipae in policy ormulaion and assessmen commitees and/or social programmes.o maximise is inuence on public policymaking, he organizaion has also become increasingly visible in he media and public ora.

Learning by doing

Te case sudy noed IDRC’s approach o supporing CIES reecs several o he idenied ‘goodpracices’ ha conribue o capaciy developmen. IDRC, which has provided core unding ohe Consorium since 1989, has used a ‘reec and learn’ approach o is relaionship wih CIES.Mainly, i has responded o he expressed needs o he nework, a sraegy CIES values or heexibiliy and auonomy i aords he Consorium. Tis in urn has ranslaed ino a locally denedresearch and organizaional agenda.Te consrucion o parnerships beween IDRC and he Execuive Ofce, Board members,and associaed researchers has also been undamenal. In paricular, he sudy highlighs heopporuniy o esablish riendly proessional relaionships buil on rus beween IDRC ProgramOfcers and CIES (is Execuive Ofce, members o he Board and some o he researchers