This paper investigates stakeholder engagement with decision-making and research for international aid and social development, to encourage decisions that are both evidenceinformed and appropriate to their context. The vision is for policy makers, programme managers and practitioners making decisions to engage with formal research about causal relationships and contextual influences (such as impact evaluations or systematic reviews), and to combine this with the know-how and tacit knowledge from those most intimately involved in the issues at hand. The rationale is that: stakeholders make better decisions when they engage with research findings; stakeholder engagement with the research process leads to research that takes into account their interests and concerns; and, in the absence of research, stakeholders’ familiarity with the local context is the starting point for informing decisions and new research.