After decades of producing research that was not used to shape social policy, the Department of Behavioural Sciences has launched a special unit to partner with other agencies to change the ways these problems are addressed.

On September 21, the Unit for Social Problem Analysis and Social Policy (USPASP) was launched in a bid to reduce the gap between research, policy development and implementation. As it is, a large portion of the work carried out within and outside of the Department of Behavioural Sciences is focused on social problems in the region and many lecturers in the faculty guide graduate students in such research.

However, much of this work is strictly academic in that it exposes the theories, methodologies, analyses and findings of research with very few linkages to social policy development and implementation. Conversely, many social policies are not implemented based on actual evidence gathered on the people directly affected by the policies.

The USPASP is envisaged as an agency of the department that will focus on social problems through partnership with the concrete experiences of public and civil society agencies. In this way the University can build even stronger linkages with the community it serves.

Initial discussions led by Dr. Daphne Phillips convinced the Department of Behavioural Sciences that it has a responsibility to address the social problems in our societies today. According to Dr. Phillips, “Our contribution has to be academic, but interpreted for our societies; i.e. in terms of concrete social policy prescriptions that are based on the evidence of our research findings.”

A steering committee set up to bring the unit on stream comprises Professor Patricia Mohammed, Dr Innette Cambridge, Dr Bishnu Ragoonath, Dr Steve Rollocks and Dr Phillips as coordinator. The committee recommended the creation of a database on past research by a research assistant.

The academic database shows a vast array of current work already completed throughout all the disciplines in the behavioural and wider social sciences. However, following analysis, there is little or no social policy development, i.e. the ‘what must be done’ aspect of our work. The academic approach to research has been geared mainly to understanding the problem, not fixing it.

As an agency, the unit will engage in training individuals on the techniques of development of social policy as an outcome of social research. It will collaborate with Ministries and NGOs in engaging in joint research, attachments, and internships relevant to issues of concern to them. Additionally, it will coordinate the social problem analyses and proposals on social policy of graduate students in the Department and offer assistance with publication. It will coordinate the activities of students in relation to relevance to its objectives, assist with editing of selected student items and offering assistance with publication; and make evidence-based social policy creations of the faculty or students available for public consumption.