As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Bridges across boundaries: Linking research and policy in international development
Bridges across boundaries: Linking research and policy in international development ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Opinion 20, July 2004
Think-tanks need to work together across national boundaries if they are to influence policy-making internationally. ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) is helping to pioneer a new way of doing this, using a model known as ‘policy code-sharing’. It is especially difficult to bridge the gap between research and policy when any change to policy needs decisionmakers in many different countries to agree. This is the case with many policies related to international development: anything to do with trade or international finance, issues governing the structures of overseas aid, measures to improve the effectiveness of international institutions – an endless list................. (see link in title for full article)