Summary statement
The 2023 efforts of ISDC, SPIA, and IAES/Evaluation Function, underpinned by IAES operational support, reflect a productive year providing independent advising and evaluative and impact evidence in CGIAR's research and innovation landscape. These entities’ dedication to inclusivity, knowledge sharing, and effective governance helps to position them for continued success in the coming years.
Download reportThe Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC) experienced a dynamic year in 2023, in which it positioned itself to contribute significantly to CGIAR’s portfolio evolution in 2024 and delivered key commissioned research on megatrends.
ISDC coordinated with CGIAR leadership, anticipating a moderated review of proposals under Portfolio25 in 2024. The Council rendered a comparative advantage (CA) analysis technical note into podcasts and videos as a means to enhance understanding of the CA concept. ISDC also conducted a Megatrends project that yielded a discussion paper outlining nine implications crucial for the evolution of CGIAR’s research and innovation portfolio. Additionally, ISDC hosted a science forum during the 19th System Council meeting, focusing on megatrends impacting gender equality, youth, and social inclusion. ISDC also published a Perspective piece in Sustainable Agriculture [a Nature publication] that explored some of the interlinked concepts it has used in advising CGIAR.
ISDC 2023 HighlightsThe Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) secured approval for a new plan extending through 2030 while successfully navigating the penultimate year of the 2019-2024 workplan, focusing on country reach and causal evidence studies.
SPIA progressed as planned with its 2019-2024 workplan, while also securing approval for a new operational model and the 2023-2030 workplan. The panel organized webinars and published guidelines on remote sensing for impact assessment to strengthen the method’s base for the SPIA approach. SPIA made significant strides in collecting diffusion data in Bangladesh and Vietnam and published a report on the adoption of improved rice cultivars and sustainable practices. The panel expects to publish reports from country studies in Ethiopia and Uganda in 2024. In 2023, study teams completed three accountability studies and two learning studies commissioned by SPIA.
SPIA 2023 HighlightsIAES’s Evaluation Function completed the full cycle of System Council-commissioned program and platform evaluations for the period 2016-2021.
The Evaluation Function work continued, focusing on operationalizing the CGIAR Evaluation Framework and Policy, with an increasingly dedicated emphasis on knowledge management. Evaluative engagements addressed assurance and ‘evaluability,’ such as the Performance and Results Management System (PRMS) advisory engagement. Platform evaluations for GENDER and Genebanks concluded, providing transitional and forward-looking recommendations for the ongoing CGIAR portfolio revision. Efforts toward inclusivity and capacity sharing were highlighted by the translation of key documents into Spanish and the convening of an IAES and ISDC Spanish-language knowledge-sharing event. Process evaluation included an advisory activity in partnership with Internal Audit on CGIAR’s PRMS.
IAES/EVALUATION FUNCTION 2023 HighlightsOnline Engagements
In an increasingly digital world, IAES, ISDC and SPIA are reaching many stakeholders through social media. Compared to 2022, there was a 60% rise in website views and publication downloads, and 50% rise in social media followers. Our newsletter provides real time reporting on our work.
SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter85.4K
Website
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*Excludes CGSpace
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Website Visitors
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Roster of Experts
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Our Network Around the World
We strive to bring diversity – be it diversity of thought, discipline, national origin or identity, gender – to our expert teams and networks. Inclusivity and participation are topics that run deep through the workstreams of ISDC, SPIA and IAES/Evaluation Function. This map summarizes the global breadth of the people we work with most closely. In 2023, we worked with 54% men and 46% women.
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54%
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2023 Meetings and Events
51 Events Throughout 2023
- Governance Bodies
- CGIAR Executive and Global Leadership
- Science Leaders and Initiative Design Teams
- Research Partners & Network
- Co-organized with CGIAR practitioners
CGIAR’s independent advisory functions engineer independent advisory, evaluation and impact assessment advice and evidence to be timely, relevant and accessible. This means meaningful interactions with smaller and larger groups, inside and outside of CGIAR.
Our attendance working with communities of practice and research teams shows a strong focus on bolstering methods from within CGIAR. Presence at governance meetings in formally mandated capacities allows a fluid line for reporting.
Outside of CGIAR, among academics, in professional bodies, and with country partners, advice and evidence is also brought to bear.
2023 Publications
- Supported/authored peer-reviewed articles
- Technical notes & reports*
- Briefs & fact sheets
- Blogs, videos & podcasts
plans for 2024
Independent Science for Development Council
ISDC will concentrate 2024 on Portfolio evolution advice, commissioned studies and related outputs – for example, possible continued work on commissioned megatrends analysis, and publication of a special issue in Agricultural Systems on inclusive innovation. The continuation of the Science Forum Series on innovation will build on the 2022-2023 events and dialogue.
Standing Panel on Impact Assessment
SPIA in 2024 will usher in the scoping phase of the 2023-2030 workplan while concluding activities of the 2019-2024 workplan. The Panel will deliver and disseminate the synthesis of causal impact evidence from the SPIA portfolio and deliver country reports on the reach of CGIAR innovations in Uganda, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, and dynamic evidence on the reach of CGIAR innovations in Ethiopia. In 2024, SPIA will transition to a new operational modality and identify research consortia that will continue to track the reach of CGIAR innovations.
Evaluation Function
The IAES/Evaluation Function will proceed with the delivery of the multi-year evaluation plan, focusing in 2024 on evaluation of three Science Groups that will be engineered to support evolution of the CGIAR Portfolio and new proposals. Furthermore, the 2023 Genebank Platform Evaluation and the Synthesis of Results and learnings from Evaluability Assessments (EA) of four Regional Integrated Initiatives will be delivered to the governing body. “Management Engagement and Response” and “Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion-responsive Evaluations” guidelines will be released. A review of the status of implementation of Management Responses to evaluations and GDI Action Plan are also in the plan.
Meet new people
TRAVIS LYBBERT
SPIA Chair
GAMZE AKARSU
Knowledge Management Officer
IBTISSEM JOUINI
Senior Evaluation Manager
INES GONZALEZ DE SUSO
Secretariat Officer For ISDC
TRAVIS LYBBERT
SPIA CHAIR
Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California Davis, USA
Travis J. Lybbert is a Professor at the University of California, Davis in the Agricultural & Resource Economics Department. He has published research on topics in applied microeconomic ranging from poverty dynamics, climate change and childhood nutrition to agricultural technology adoption, intellectual property and innovation policy.
Collaborating with researchers, students, NGOs, governments, and private firms, he has lived and worked in India, Haiti, and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Europe. He has spent time as a visiting researcher in the Intellectual Property Division of the World Trade Organization, in the Economics and Statistics Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and in universities in Ghana, Germany and Sweden. He is an Affiliate of the Center for Effective Global Action and currently serves as Co-Editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
He was a Fulbright Scholar in Morocco before earning his Ph.D. (2004) in Applied Economics from Cornell University.