The challenge of impact assessment

Bioversity has just published the first in a series of impact assessment publications, a series which looks in detail at the impact of some of our research.

The series starts with the African Leafy Vegetables Programme  [2], a project to increase the production, consumption and marketing of a wide range of African leafy vegetables in Kenya and to improve household welfare.

The nature of Bioversity’s research mandate - the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity to improve people’s lives – creates complex challenges when it comes to demonstrating the link between programme results and human welfare. 

Research results, such as an improvement in a person’s well-being, the empowerment of women or the conservation of agricultural biodiversity, are often indirect and difficult to measure. Where there is a more tangible result, for example a change in a small-scale farmer’s income or yield, other factors such as that year’s growing conditions, must be taken into account which can make attribution to a specific intervention difficult to isolate.

Additional challenges include how to separate the contribution of one organization from the synergies created by several partners working together and how to assess economic and development impacts at local, national and global levels.  Bioversity’s impact assessment system tries to take these complexities into account by linking the research process to measurable changes through the identification of impact pathways.

The first in the series of impact assessment briefs and discussion papers is now online:
The African Leafy Vegetables Programme  [2]

In addition, there is a new Impact Assessment section   [3]on our website where you can find out more about our impact assessment methodology and subscribe to receive updates.

For further information, contact:
 Elisabetta Gotor  [4]