Theory of Change

Strengthening AIRCA Monitoring and Evaluation Systems

Leave a Comment / Agricultural Research, Evaluation systems, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, Theory of Change / By

Agricultural research and development organizations are under pressure to have and report more impact. Integrated monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems can help, however they do not evolve overnight. MEL specialists belonging to the Association of International Research Centers in Agriculture (AIRCA) Community of Practice (COP) on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) have found that their …

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Learning to use Participatory Action Research and Theory of Change together

Leave a Comment / Agricultural Research, Partipatory Action Research, Theory of Change / By

Most people agree that there are no simple solutions to tackling rural poverty and marginalization. Increasingly, programs that wish to do so are grappling with how to effectively engage in complex systems where outcomes are emergent, resulting from the interactions between different actors in pursuit of their own agendas. The emergent nature of change makes the outcomes …

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Do systems fight back? Some lessons from agricultural research in development

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Do long-established systems have an immune system that helps them resist transformational change? If so, how does it work? These are important questions for anyone trying to change their organizations. If the system is going to strike back then knowing how and when that might happen can help save your initiative from being killed off. …

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Small-scale Farmer Innovation: How Agricultural Research Works Together with Farmers

Leave a Comment / Impact Pathways, Local development processes, Supporting small-scale farmer innovation, Theory of Change / By

MISEREOR, Prolinnova and McKnight Foundation, in collaboration with the editors of WELT-SICHTEN have recently published a dossier in German on small-scale farmer innovation (Baeuerliche Innovation). The English translation is now finished and available here. A farmer innovation in Burkina Faso showing how onions are stored to provide ventilation and protect the crop from heat “The articles …

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Agricultural Research’s Three Pathways to Impact

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I have worked with the concept of ‘impact pathways’, or ‘theories of change’ for nearly 20 years. Perhaps the best advice I have received in this time is that theory of change should tell a good story.  A good story draws you in, it is compelling because it is about real people in real places. We come …

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