Producing knowledge that is relevant and can be acted upon is essential for international development. There is a renewed urgency for knowledge from the civil society sector, particularly non-academic organizations, to be acknowledged and recorded, to be distilled and leveraged, in order to help the sector retain its relevance. Deep transformations are affecting the sector and global North CSOs are being challenged by funders and beneficiaries alike to be more agile and nimble in mustering knowledge and applying it to advance human rights, reduce inequality, and make our societies more inclusive, more just, and more sustainable.
Putting Knowledge to Work unveils the often under-rated role that knowledge plays in non-governmental organizations’ (NGO) work in international cooperation for development. How do they go about producing or accessing the knowledge which they need? How do they collaborate with others to do so? How do they strategize and apply knowledge to effect positive change locally and more broadly for development? How do they go about learning from practice to keep evolving as development actors? The book not only unpacks tensions and challenges faced by small- and medium-sized development NGOs in particular; it also analyses cases in which organizations have devised inspiring solutions to improve their own performance, often in the face of adversity.

This book should be read by staff and managers of civil society organizations, government staff and philanthropic organizations, and students and researchers in the field of international development.

Prelims [List of illustrations | Acronyms and abbreviations | Foreword | Preface]
1 Knowledge for civil society in the rapidly changing ecosystem for international development
Luc J.A. Mougeot
2 Whose agenda? Power, policies, and priorities in North–South research partnerships
Megan Bradley
3 Research for development: modalities and tensions in collaboration between universities and other Canadian civil society organizations
Elena Chernikova
4 Canadian civil society organizations and the role of research in influencing development policy and practice in the Global South
Stacie Travers
5 The learning needs and experiences of Canadian civil society organizations in international cooperation for development
Eric Smith
6 Conclusion: main findings, messages, and pending knowledge gaps
Luc J.A. Mougeot
Index

‘This fascinating collection breaks important new ground with respect to our understanding of how community-based research can change lives for the better. The productive collaborations of civil society organizations across North and South described in these outstanding essays in fact redefine our understanding of the power of applied research in a developing world context.’
Ted Hewitt, President, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
‘Civil society is site, mode and actor in knowledge production, mobilization and dissemination. This book demonstrates the modalities of the same through a series of studies and articles. For civil society practitioners and scholars engaged in inclusive development, this book offers practical insights.’
Dr Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President, PRIA, New Delhi, and UNESCO Co-Chair in Community-based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education
‘Rigorous evidence-based analysis is essential to civil society organizations' programming and policy in global development cooperation. This collection effectively documents how these organizations work and collaborate to acquire and share knowledge, and suggests ways to improve their ability to access and build knowledge to address contemporary development challenges. It is a timely publication for Canadian civil society, as our sector embarks on a new joint project with Canadian researchers to test and document best practices in collaboration between academics and practitioners of international development.’
Julia Sánchez, President-CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC)