Abstract
The Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES), through its Evaluation Function (EF), is executing four summaries of learning that address five of CGIAR’s Ways of Working (WoWs), as articulated in the 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy. These summaries are planned as part of the 2025–27 Multi-Year Evaluation Plan (MYEP), endorsed by the System Council (SC). The five WoWs, with their shortened names, include: (1) Systems Transformation, (2) Multiple Transformation Pathways, (3) Innovative Finance, (4) Risk Management and Resilience, and (5) Digital Revolution.
Guided by the CGIAR-wide Evaluation Framework and Policy, this effort aims to steer and provide evidence-based guidance to inform the strategic decisions of the SC, its Strategic Impact Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (SIMEC), and CGIAR boards and leadership more broadly, on the implementation of WoWs in CGIAR’s current Portfolio (2025–30). Summaries will assess challenges and identify areas for improvement in implementing CGIAR’s 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy through the lens of WoWs. Findings will help CGIAR establish a baseline understanding of the current state of WoWs, and will recommend pathways for progress. This effort will also complement the midline independent evaluations of CGIAR programs (2027).
WoWs summaries will compile learning, findings, lessons, and recommendations, not only from SC–commissioned independent process and performance evaluations organized by the IAES-EF and related syntheses, but also from other sources, including relevant materials from the Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC), the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA), the CGIAR Internal Audit, and CGIAR center-led evaluations and studies. A focused literature review for each WoW topic will further enrich the exercise. One field visit to a selected country (Uganda) where CGIAR operates, will help deepen the analysis of how WoWs are concretely operationalized into fieldwork. The main outputs will be up to four reports and up to five briefs. To support dissemination, a thematic webinar series will be organized.
Leveraging the richness of evaluative data from the Science Group evaluations [portal], IAES advanced a study in 2024 that summarizes partnership-related evidence (specifically WoW-related to partnerships and partially WoW-related to regions, countries, and landscapes). Therefore, the Terms of Reference (ToR) focuses on the remaining five WoWs and follows a different methodological approach.
Citation
CGIAR Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES). (2025). Terms of Reference: Summaries of Learning on CGIAR’s Ways of Working. Rome: IAES Evaluation Function. https://iaes.cgiar.org/
Publisher
Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES)
