In our organisation we have applied research methods for the last 20 years for the following reasons:
- Basis for planning of relevant activities
- Evaluation of effects of the activities
- Advocacy and spread of knowledge at a local/national/global level
- Networking to get influence
We have learned that by doing this as an NGO we earn credibility not only at a local but also at a national level and our objectives are more easily spread from a small project area to a bigger context.
Many of our Danish members are doing research in their jobs and that makes it easier to plan together with local partners. The advantage for our local partners is that they learn how to do research and how to publish results which creates opportunities for themselves and their NGO's.
We do what can be called 'action research', a type of research that is relatively simple to perform and not expensive. This makes it realistic in a low-income setting without much tradition for doing research.
You can find our articles in scientific databases, on NGO homepages and in newspapers.