The work of the CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) over the next few years will concentrate on deepening the assessments of impact of CGIAR research to go beyond economic impact measurements to examine issues arguably closest to the heart of CGIAR goals – especially impact indicators relating to poverty and hunger. Rarely have these been measured in explicit or rigorous ways that clearly establish a causal connection with CGIAR research outputs. Some studies have been undertaken (e.g. the collection by Adato and Meinzen-Dick, 2007) but few of these were conducted at a macro-level sufficient to provide comprehensive estimates of poverty related impacts from CGIAR research investments. SPIA with the support of USAID will allocate some limited resources to this activity in 2011-12.
To jumpstart this initiative, SPIA and IFPRI will jointly organise a one and half day brainstorming workshop with the following objectives.
- Evaluate promising new methods and data sources for more comprehensively and more credibly documenting ex-post impacts of CG research on poverty and hunger
- Methods for causal identification: experimental and non-experimental approaches
- Integration across scales: combining micro-level and macro-level methods
- Measurement under real-world constraints: identifying useful (feasible) indicators of poverty and hunger (income poverty, nutrition, gender equality, risk/vulnerability, empowerment, etc.)
- Suggest feasible ways forward for SPIA in 2011-2012 aiming to broaden or deepen evidence of impact ex post of the CG on specific poverty-related indicators, with indicative workplan and budget.
Agenda and list of participants (PDF)
Background note: SPIA. 2010. A Brief History of Poverty Impact Assessment of Agricultural Research (PDF)
Background paper: de Janvry, A., Dustan, A., and Sadoulet, E. 2010. Recent Advances in Impact Analysis Methods for Ex-post Impact Assessments of Agricultural Technology: Options for the CGIAR (PDF)
Workshop report (PDF)
Potential poverty case studies and presentations + 2 page summaries of 26 possible poverty case studies submitted to SPIA by CGIAR Centers (PDF)
Full-length versions of the possible poverty case studies (PDF)
Presentations
Bob Herdt: Thoughts on assessing the impact of improved agricultural technology on poverty (PDF)
Alain de Janvry: Overview and evaluation of methods used in ex-post impact assessments of agricultural technology (PDF)
Elisabeth Sadoulet: Randomized control trials and other methods of "pseudo-randomization" (PDF)
John Hoddinott: Evaluating the impact of new agricultural technologies with panel data ( PDF)
Will Martin: Promoting global agricultural growth and poverty reduction (2010-2050) ( PDF)
Clemens Breisinger: Progress on CGE modeling and role in CGIAR impact assessment (PDF)
Joaquim Bento de Souza Ferreira Filho: Technologies progress in Brazilian agriculture - poverty and income distribution effects (PDF)
