Rethinking Impact Workshop

In association with the CGIAR’s Participatory Research and Gender Analysis System Wide Programme (PRGA) and ILRI’s Innovation Works, the ILAC Initiative co-organized a workshop on ‘Rethinking Impact: Understanding the Complexity of Poverty and Change,’ at CIAT headquarters, Cali, Colombia, March 26-28, 2008.The objective of the workshop was to draw from the experience of professionals from multiple disciplines of natural and social sciences regarding evaluation of research aimed at poverty reduction, social inclusion and sustainable development. The workshop focused on three themes:

• Case Studies with lessons learned
• Impact assessment and evaluation approaches
• Institutionalization of new approached for research management and impact assessment

We were particularly interested in new methods and metrics that have been developed and tested in ongoing evaluations and impact assessment efforts supporting learning.

The workshop was attended by 59 professionals (42% of whom were women) from Natural Sciences, Evaluation, Economics and Social Sciences background.