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Some personal history
My three brothers and I went into exile with my parents in 1961 (when I was four years old), and I lived in both Kenya and the USA for a total of 32 years. The greatest formative intellectual influences on me were Franz Fanon’s book, The Wretched of the Earth and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. A key defining moment was living through the failed military coup in Kenya of August 1982, which I witnessed from up close as a trainee journalist at the University of Nairobi. Who had the biggest influence in your life, and what did you learn from them?
From my father, in the context of a prolonged exile, the beacon of ‘home’ and the necessity of a return to one’s ancestral roots. From my mother, the strength that comes from an unending devotion to one’s family; and, from my late wife, that cultural borders and other divides were invented to be crossed and bridged. What would you regard as the highlight of your career thus far?
Serving as the special adviser to the Minister of Social Development in the government of a democratic South Africa. What are the most challenging aspects of your job and what would you most like to achieve?
The great challenge is achieving greater utilisation of research evidence in policy formulation, review and implementation in the areas of poverty reduction, quality education, employment creation, improved service delivery and a reduced impact of HIV and AIDS. This is a wide field that covers different aspects of the research done in other HSRC research programmes. How do you envision working with them?
We will be working as project team members in various time-bound policy initiatives that pull together existing research, that engage in dialogue with key stakeholders, and that construct viable policy options that are summarised in readable policy briefs. Is there an academic theory on policy development that can guide you, or is this a brand new field? And how do you go about developing policy; what are the important factors that you have to take into account?
We see ‘policy’ both as a course of action or plan (a set of political purposes) and as a narrative. In terms of the policy cycle, our emphasis is on enhancing the efficacy of implementation. This is why the unit’s payoff line is ‘creative solutions for policy implementation’. There are various traditions, theories, evaluation methodologies and analytical techniques in policy analysis and, similarly, various conceptions of how social science research influences public policy. Research evidence is just one of many factors – ideological orientation, values, vested interests (economic, social, cultural and bureaucratic), power, political ascendancy and media saliency – that influence policy development. What could be better than being a ‘policy junkie’ tasked with working in the nexus of research and policy during ‘interesting times’? Is this not a potentially tension-filled minefield as the government has its own policy research mechanisms and ways of developing policy?
How would you go about navigating this terrain? One has to be simultaneously a credible researcher or interpreter of policy research, a trusted adviser, a critical policy activist and an honest broker. Maintaining close trust relationships with all key stakeholders is vital and this requires good interpersonal skills, open-mindedness and good judgement. Keeping Amilcar Cabral’s injunction to ‘tell no lies and claim no easy victories’ at the forefront of one’s mind at all times is useful in navigating through the minefields in any policy development arena. Who is the person you would most like to meet and what would you discuss with him/her?
Definitely President Thabo Mbeki. The subject for discussion – What do you see as the missed opportunities in our first decade of freedom, the critical policy challenges facing South Africa over the next 10 years and what do you hope will be your legacy? How do you relax and recharge your batteries?
Given the battering my knees took during a long rugby-playing career and my love of the wilderness, nothing beats taking my dogs for very long walks in the Groenkloof Nature Reserve. Getting angry about social injustice and inept management also helps to recharge my batteries. Evidence that calculated collective action leads in the direction of desired results should keep everyone going. But, at the end of the day, I have to say that there is nothing more rewarding than the smile of a child.
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