Herding cats: is impact assessment the ultimate exercise in futility
Kristjanson, P.
Herding cats: is impact assessment the ultimate exercise in futility - Mexico, DF (Mexico) CIMMYT : 2003 - p. 27 - Printed
Abstract only
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has invested a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources in a wide range of impact assessment activities in recent years. It is a good time to address the issue of how effective that effort has been. ILRI initiated the adoption of a systems approach around six years ago. However, it is only now that we have the array of tools and databases needed to facilitate deeper understanding of the various livestock production systems and examine impacts of interventions or changes within a particular system. Even So, each new assessment we undertake highlights the insufficient resolution of critical data. However, as we develop a better understanding of livestock systems, we are able to develop predictive models incorporating important driving and conditioning forces such as human population growth, climate change, and po1icy changes. Beyond endorsing a systems approach, we are also witnessing, and hopefully catalyzing, a shift towards a multi-centered, multidisciplinary, and participatory research approach based on strong teamwork and collaborative databases. We propose that it is the traditional top-down, uni-disciplinary approach to impact assessment research that underlies its historical lack of effectiveness. We believe that it is the ongoing sea change in research approaches now being undertaken within the CGIAR, coupled with recent advances in techno1ogy (making high resolution satellite data cheaper and more accessible, for example), that will in fact make impact assessment, including monitoring and evaluation activities, much more effective in the future. In this paper, we look at some of the costs and benefits of the systems approach we are advocating and the methods we have been using at ILRI for institutional and donor priority setting as well as ex ante and ex post assessments, in the hopes of shedding some light on the following issues. First, what benefits do we see arising from our impact assessment research? Second, why has it not had more impact? Third, how can we make it more effective without devoting an unserviceable level of capital expenditure in order to do so? It is hoped that our experiences at ILRI will benefit our partners and other institutions grappling with similar issues.
English
970-648-076-5
Agricultural development
Economic analysis
Economic resources
Economic resources
Livestock management
Technology
Agricultural research
CIMMYT
338.91 / WAT
Herding cats: is impact assessment the ultimate exercise in futility - Mexico, DF (Mexico) CIMMYT : 2003 - p. 27 - Printed
Abstract only
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has invested a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources in a wide range of impact assessment activities in recent years. It is a good time to address the issue of how effective that effort has been. ILRI initiated the adoption of a systems approach around six years ago. However, it is only now that we have the array of tools and databases needed to facilitate deeper understanding of the various livestock production systems and examine impacts of interventions or changes within a particular system. Even So, each new assessment we undertake highlights the insufficient resolution of critical data. However, as we develop a better understanding of livestock systems, we are able to develop predictive models incorporating important driving and conditioning forces such as human population growth, climate change, and po1icy changes. Beyond endorsing a systems approach, we are also witnessing, and hopefully catalyzing, a shift towards a multi-centered, multidisciplinary, and participatory research approach based on strong teamwork and collaborative databases. We propose that it is the traditional top-down, uni-disciplinary approach to impact assessment research that underlies its historical lack of effectiveness. We believe that it is the ongoing sea change in research approaches now being undertaken within the CGIAR, coupled with recent advances in techno1ogy (making high resolution satellite data cheaper and more accessible, for example), that will in fact make impact assessment, including monitoring and evaluation activities, much more effective in the future. In this paper, we look at some of the costs and benefits of the systems approach we are advocating and the methods we have been using at ILRI for institutional and donor priority setting as well as ex ante and ex post assessments, in the hopes of shedding some light on the following issues. First, what benefits do we see arising from our impact assessment research? Second, why has it not had more impact? Third, how can we make it more effective without devoting an unserviceable level of capital expenditure in order to do so? It is hoped that our experiences at ILRI will benefit our partners and other institutions grappling with similar issues.
English
970-648-076-5
Agricultural development
Economic analysis
Economic resources
Economic resources
Livestock management
Technology
Agricultural research
CIMMYT
338.91 / WAT