The increasing complexity of the challenges, particularly with regard to their
impacts on poor and vulnerable populations, requires a rethinking of our approach
to R4D. CGIAR has taken on this challenge by broadening its portfolio of major
new initiatives for strategic research. A first round of some half-a-dozen ‘Challenge
Programs’ were mandated to develop new R4D models over a period of up to
10 years, starting in 2002 (CGIAR 2015b). Box 4.2 describes one example of these
programs, focusing on water and food.
Box 4.2: Challenge Program on Water and Food
The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) piloted new
ways of increasing the resilience of social and ecological systems through
better water management for food production. From 2002 to 2013, the
program supported more than 120 research projects in ten of the world’s
largest river basins (Hall et al. 2014; Harrington and Fisher 2014). The
program early on developed IPs and theories of change for its R4D river
basin programs. From a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) perspective this
included results-based and adaptive management as well as learning-oriented
approaches. The insights and knowledge gained from CPWF’s 12 years of
work are being integrated into another CGIAR Research Program on Water,
Land and Ecosystems.
In a second round, from 2010 onwards, 16 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs)
were set up in a 5-year first phase (CGIAR 2015c). The major reorientation of the
R4D portfolio was in the move from an output focus to an outcome focus. Success
was now to be measured in terms of the CRP’s contribution to behavioral changes,
manifested in changes in knowledge, attitudes and skills and practices of a wide set
of non-research next users, including development practitioners, farmers and policy
makers.
Through approaches such as results-based management, theories of change and
impact pathways, the term outcome came into focus. Organizations such as the
International Development Research Center (IDRC) were early developers of M&E
tools to capture and measure outcomes through their ‘Outcome Mapping’ methodology (Earl et al. 2001). Within CGIAR, ‘Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis’
(PIPA) (Douthwaite et al. 2003, 2007) was developed under the CPWF to unpack
processes and mechanisms in the realm of outcomes.
Towards the end of the first phase, 4 of the 16 CGIAR research programs were
tasked to develop a comprehensive, suitable and lean results-based management
approach for research for development, initially for a period of 12 months. The
following section describes how the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change,
Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) developed and implemented its RBM trial
and highlights the main lessons learnt.
58
T. Schuetz et al.
impacts on poor and vulnerable populations, requires a rethinking of our approach
to R4D. CGIAR has taken on this challenge by broadening its portfolio of major
new initiatives for strategic research. A first round of some half-a-dozen ‘Challenge
Programs’ were mandated to develop new R4D models over a period of up to
10 years, starting in 2002 (CGIAR 2015b). Box 4.2 describes one example of these
programs, focusing on water and food.
Box 4.2: Challenge Program on Water and Food
The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) piloted new
ways of increasing the resilience of social and ecological systems through
better water management for food production. From 2002 to 2013, the
program supported more than 120 research projects in ten of the world’s
largest river basins (Hall et al. 2014; Harrington and Fisher 2014). The
program early on developed IPs and theories of change for its R4D river
basin programs. From a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) perspective this
included results-based and adaptive management as well as learning-oriented
approaches. The insights and knowledge gained from CPWF’s 12 years of
work are being integrated into another CGIAR Research Program on Water,
Land and Ecosystems.
In a second round, from 2010 onwards, 16 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs)
were set up in a 5-year first phase (CGIAR 2015c). The major reorientation of the
R4D portfolio was in the move from an output focus to an outcome focus. Success
was now to be measured in terms of the CRP’s contribution to behavioral changes,
manifested in changes in knowledge, attitudes and skills and practices of a wide set
of non-research next users, including development practitioners, farmers and policy
makers.
Through approaches such as results-based management, theories of change and
impact pathways, the term outcome came into focus. Organizations such as the
International Development Research Center (IDRC) were early developers of M&E
tools to capture and measure outcomes through their ‘Outcome Mapping’ methodology (Earl et al. 2001). Within CGIAR, ‘Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis’
(PIPA) (Douthwaite et al. 2003, 2007) was developed under the CPWF to unpack
processes and mechanisms in the realm of outcomes.
Towards the end of the first phase, 4 of the 16 CGIAR research programs were
tasked to develop a comprehensive, suitable and lean results-based management
approach for research for development, initially for a period of 12 months. The
following section describes how the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change,
Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) developed and implemented its RBM trial
and highlights the main lessons learnt.
58
T. Schuetz et al.