Author : Braunschweig, Thomas

Summary : The political and cultural context of the project provided a challenging lesson. ISNAR could have been too ambitious in trying to reconcile political and cultural differences. As an external organization, ISNAR would have difficulty to facilitate such politically based processes. The cultural specificity further complicates its potential role as intermediary. This necessitates that the priority-setting process should be simplified. If more attention would be required to work towards a consensus on purpose, objectives, and procedures, then less time would be left to manage complex methodological and conceptual issues. The Philippine priority-setting exercise provided valuable experience which achieved the objectives in the umbrella project design of ISNAR and ETH.