Annual Snapshot 2025
CGIAR’s Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES) provides operational support as the secretariat for the Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC) and the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA), and implements CGIAR’s multi-year, independent evaluation plan as approved by the System Council. The IAES and the two independent bodies it supports, facilitate and provide external, impartial, and expert advice related to strategy and positioning, program evaluation, and impact assessment.
ISDC Achievements
In 2025, ISDC delivered an independent external review of the 2025–2030 Portfolio Inception Reports. The review process emphasized transparency, consensus building, and decision-maker usability, supported by structured engagement across CGIAR.
ISDC also managed significant leadership and membership transitions with four new members and chair through rapid onboarding and launch of ISDC 101, an interactive learning platform. The second semester focused on an ISDC Prioritization Primer that gathered all ISDC resources since 2020, to provide CGIAR leadership with a coherent set of evidence-based methods to assist in future decisions on a complex research and innovation portfolio. Throughout the year, ISDC maintained close engagement with CGIAR governance and leadership, reinforcing continuity, credibility, and strategic alignment across the system.
SPIA Achievements
In 2025, the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) disseminated national-level reach estimates from four Country Studies, published three technical notes, and undertook a study to determine the returns on investments (ROI) for select CGIAR innovations.
In the first half of the year, SPIA published a number of articles and hosted a series of in-person and online events around the Vietnam Report, the Ethiopia Report, and the Uganda Report. SPIA’s fourth Country Study, the Bangladesh Report, was published in December 2025.
Later in the year, SPIA’s outputs focused on cross-cutting issues surrounding evidence and impact: Does reach translate to impact? And how can we measure the returns on agricultural investments? These topics were covered in SPIA’s technical notes and research for the System Council-commissioned ROI study.
IAES/Evaluation Function Achievements
In 2025, the Evaluation Function of IAES continued to strengthen CGIAR’s MELIA by advancing portfolio evaluability and implementation.
Evaluability Assessments across 13 Science Programs and Accelerators identified critical MELIA gaps, and synthesized evidence on CGIAR’s Ways of Working (partnerships, systems transformation, innovative finance, digital tools, and resilience) reinforced pathways for credible midline evaluations and evidence-based decision-making and learning. Enhancing methodological rigor has been enhanced through new and updated Evaluation Guidelines and Methods Notes, including on MR, GEYSI, AI and Social Network Analysis. The new Evaluative Learning Hub organized evidence and methods around nine priority themes for accessible learning and use within and beyond CGIAR.
Our Network Around the World
True innovation requires diversity. That is why inclusivity is fundamentally embedded in our operations at ISDC, SPIA, and the IAES Evaluation Function. We actively seek out diverse voices to foster meaningful participation. In 2025, we actively engaged with 88 people from 37 countries, drawing from a wide roster of subject matter experts that proves the global scale of our collaboration.
We are also proud to report strong gender representation, with a split of 56.1% female to 43.9% male.
These statistics are more than just numbers; they represent the varied backgrounds and perspectives that drive our success.
Involved
Represented
Plans for 2026
Independent Science for Development Council
ISDC will enhance feedback mechanisms with System Council, Integrated Partnership Board, and CGIAR Management and implement new methods to track uptake of its advice. It will also conduct an assessment to identify evolving scientific advisory needs of its stakeholders, with the objective of enhancing value and use of publications such as the Quality of Research for Development framework and Comparative Advantage analyses. The Council will also play a key role in external reviews of CGIAR centers, in partnership with the Evaluation Function.
Standing Panel on Impact Assessment
In 2026, SPIA plans to scale up the county-level studies to assess the reach of CGIAR innovations, with nationally representative surveys in seven high-priority countries and a preliminary stocktaking in 11 additional ones. To understand the impact pathways of CGIAR innovations, five causal impact studies, including select pilots, have been commissioned. These will focus on seed systems, climate change adaptation, biofortification, and pest/disease management. SPIA will translate these findings to inform decision-making within the CGIAR system, launch the ‘evidence-finder’ tool to enhance accessibility, and track its own use of evidence through relevant metrics.
IAES Evaluation Function
The Evaluation Function will continue supporting CGIAR governance bodies and leadership at all levels of the integrated partnership in their tasks of steering, learning, and accountability. The focus will be on conducting Center External Reviews and country evaluations, coupled with updates of the Evaluation Framework and Policy and enhanced engagement with monitoring, evaluation, and learning practitioners across CGIAR. Knowledge management activities will be geared towards ensuring evaluative evidence is effectively used by stakeholders.
