Expanding Evidence on the Impact of CGIAR Research Investments
While SPIA’s goal under Objective 1 of the workplan is to increase CGIAR center capacity to be the main source of robust impact assessments on CGIAR Research, SPIA has a critical role in conducting or commissioning impact assessments to complement center work. SPIA works to expand and deepen the evidence of the impact of CGIAR research investments through various strategic studies.
- Accountability studies: Documenting long-term, large scale impacts of research;
- Learning-oriented studies: Coordinating sets of impact assessments of more recent innovations where results can inform both scaling up strategies and research priority-setting;
- Methodological studies: Pioneering development of new methods for under-evaluated areas, including the collection of data on adoption, policy influence, and impact assessment.
Ongoing Accountability Studies
Accountability studies document the impact of CGIAR research on development outcomes. In 2019-20, six accountability studies were selected to receive funding from SPIA.
| Study | Research/Innovation | Partners |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluating the Restoration of the Commons: A Quasi-Experimental Impact Assessment of a Large-Scale Land Restoration Initiative in India Founded on the Tenets of Collective Action and Property Rights (INDIA) | Promise of Commons Institutional innovation-NRM IFPRI research on the importance of property rights and collective action for managing natural resource | ICRAF, IFPRI, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) |
| Impact of a Second-Generation Conservation Agriculture Technology (Happy Seeder) on Crop Residue Burning and Air Quality in Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains (INDIA) | Happy Seeder technology Machinery | CIMMYT, IISER (India), U Michigan |
| Land-Use Land-Cover Change (LULCC) Impacts of Sorghum and Millet Upscaling Project in Mali (MALI) | Improved variety-crop Improved sorghum and millet varieties | IAMO (Germany), UC Louvain, UCSB, ICRISAT |
| Evaluating the Impact of Stress-Tolerant Rice Varieties Through Remote Sensing and Econometric Methods (BANGLADESH) | Improved variety – Stress-Tolerant Rice Varieties Submergence tolerant rice | IRRI, University of Arizona |
Principal Investigators (PI) field of specialization in funded accountability-oriented projects
SPIA also funds proposal development grants for study teams to explore the availability of suitable data on diffusion of the innovations that they had proposed for impact studies, with the objective of supporting the development of a full proposal for a subsequent accountability study if data from these development grants point to its feasibility.
Ongoing Learning Studies
Learning studies focus on innovations that have not yet experienced widespread uptake and impact. These could be recent innovations or older ones that have not gone to scale despite solid evidence that they could provide substantial (net) benefits to users. Learning studies are designed to inform future research processes and scaling strategies and are closely linked to the ToC of the specific research programs. The results of learning studies can help make stage-gating decisions.
| Study | Innovation | Partners |
|---|---|---|
| Demand and Liquidity Coordination to Foster the Adoption for Livestock Vaccinations: An Experiment with Small-Holder Dairy Cooperatives in Kenya | Vaccine Infection and Treatment Method - ECF-ITM, developed 40 years ago and regularly improved but still not widely adopted. | ILRI, UC Santa Cruz, Indian School of Business |
| Diffusion of Machine-Harvestable Chickpeas and Implications for Labor Markets in India | Machine-harvestable Chickpeas (MHCP) Erect to semi-erect growth habit and the first pod height is at least 25 cm above the soil surface | UC Berkeley, J-PAL, ICRISAT |
| Small Mechanization Impact Stimuli in Ethiopia (SMISE) | Small mechanization hire service business models | Williams College, Amherst College, CIMMYT |
| Group-based ICT Extension Support Systems: Evidence from Rural Peru (Go Digital PERU) | Demand-driven ICT-based extension through WhatsApp | CIP, Michigan State University |
| Picture Based Advisories (PBA) – Tailored digital extension based on individual field pictures | Picture Based Advisories (PBA) app | IFPRI, Wageningen University |
| Technology Adoption and Market-Access: On-Farm Agribusinesses in Rwanda | IVR-based marketplace for smallholder farmers | World Bank, CIA |
Principal Investigators (PI) fields of specialization in funded learning-oriented projects*
*Do not include the Communal grazing exclosures for scaling improved forages in the Ethiopian highlands-study and the three studies of digital support tools, for which the funding decision was made in 2021
Ongoing Methods Development
In addition to accountability and learning studies, SPIA also supports work on methods development in areas where lack of appropriate methods make it hard to measure impacts of important areas of CGIAR research.
| Study | Center | Methodological Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Impacts of Blast Resistant Wheat in Bangladesh | CIMMYT | Compare BARI Gom 33 variety to the entire crop portfolio – not just a farmer’s other wheat varieties Two-stage experiment to demonstrate a methodology for determining whether some farmers successfully adapt to abrupt environmental change by switching their crop portfolio |
Completed Studies
| Study | Partners | Innovation/Research |
|---|---|---|
| Rangeland Health and Index-Based Livestock Insurance: Innovations in Measurement and Evaluation (KENYA, ETHIOPIA) | Cornell, ILRI | Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) |
| Sustained Adoption of Environmentally Sustainable Practices: Spillovers and Long-Run Impacts in Niger | Tufts, UCSB, ICRISAT | Demi-Lune Rainwater Harvesting Technique |
| Communal Grazing Exclosures for Scaling Improved Forages in the Ethiopian Highlands | Universidad de los Andes, ILRI | Scaling approaches for improved forages |
| Institutionalizing, Tracking and Monitoring the Dissemination of Aflasafe in Africa | IITA | Aflasafe |
| Data Collection on the GIFT Dissemination Process From Hatcheries to Farmers in Bangladesh | WorldFish | Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) |
| Data Collection on the Historical Dissemination of ASI Threshers in Senegal and Nigeria | AfricaRice | ASI Threshers |
| Data Collection on the Historical Dissemination of Early-Maturing Lentil Varieties in Bangladesh and India | ICARDA | Early-Maturing Lentil Varieties |
| Diffusion and Adoption of Labor-Saving Technology in the Presence of Complementarity With Other Inputs, Intra-household Frictions, and Coordination Costs, Uganda (Pilot) | IPA, AfricaRice, Northwestern U, UC Berkeley, U Sydney. | Two-row Adapted Motorized Paddy Weeder (AMW) developed in TZ as part of SARD-DC |
| Scaling Pathways for Accelerating Adoption of the Sweetpotato Triple S Technology in Dry Areas of Mozambique | William and Mary, CIP | Triple S (Storage in Sand and Sprouting) technology |
| Long-Term Diffusion and Impacts of Index-Based Livestock Insurance (KENYA) | ILRI | Index-Based Livestock insurance ILRI research on pastoralist risk management that led to the development of index-based livestock insurance |