Role and use of independent evaluation in development-oriented agricultural research: The case of CGIAR, an agricultural research network (original) (raw)

Outlook on Agriculture

Abstract

Agricultural research oriented towards developmental goals, such as poverty alleviation, better nutrition and environmental sustainability, is challenging for monitoring and evaluation. The causal chains are long, indirect and not well understood. CGIAR, a system of independent agricultural research centres with a mission to agricultural development, has a long history of evaluation and other mechanisms of accountability. The purpose of this article is to analyse the role and utility of independent evaluation in CGIAR over two decades during which the system established a programmatic approach to research and underwent governance changes. The key findings are (i) during the historic period when evaluation of research centres was the primary mechanism of accountability to donors and of improvement of research and management at centres, evaluations were used for their intended purposes and were important for the credibility of CGIAR; (ii) evaluation of programmes in networked systems ...

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