Principles and tools

The principles of ImpresS ex post method are (1) case study analysis, (2) contribution analysis, (3) an iterative and participatory building of evaluation tools, and (4) analyzing capacity strengthening process. The two main tools mobilized in the ex post method are the innovation story and the impact pathway.

Principles

Case study analysis

The ImpresS ex post method relies on case study analysis, in order to address the complexity of agricultural innovations. This approach enables the use of a common inquiry framework across cases, while being able to allow for diversity among cases (Yin, 2009). The unit of analysis is the innovation process from the beginning of the research work to appropriation of research outputs by their intended users.

Thirteen case studies reflecting the diversity of CIRAD's research actions and geographical scope were selected from a hundred proposals made by the institutions’ scientific management. Nine of them were ex-post case studies, whereas four were in itinere (ongoing) evaluation cases. 

Contribution analysis

The process by which agricultural research contributes to developmental impacts is a complex multi-causal phenomenon. The ImpresS method stems from the recognition that attribution analysis is not adapted to assess the impact of complex innovation processes since a counterfactual scenario (situation without the intervention) is extremely difficult to elaborate. Multiple factors, both internal and external, contribute to the final impact. Contribution analysis is therefore more appropriate. Contribution analysis addresses causality by elaborating an impact pathway, verifying its assumptions, identify internal and external factors of success or failure and lastly understanding the part played by rival hypotheses in producing impacts (Mayne, 2001).

Iterative and participatory building of evaluation tools

The guiding principle of the ImpresS method is to associate, as far as possible, stakeholders of the innovation (both those involved in the innovation process and those impacted by it) in the evaluation process. Therefore, even if the evaluation team initially sketches out potential impact hypotheses, impact indicators, impact pathways and innovation stories, these products are systematically confronted and re-elaborated with stakeholders’. Their perceptions of the innovation process are therefore included and a consensus can be reached on this process, or at least substantiate divergent assessments.

Focusing on the outcomes black-box: the capacity strengthening process….

This capacity strengthening processes is seen as the backbone of the impact pathway: is it because individuals, communities or organizations develop new skills and capacities that change processes can occur (policies, practices, products, services …) and will eventually contribute to development. All along the impact pathway, different stakeholders participate in the innovation process, in order to foster the appropriation of the innovation by its intended users (the outcomes). These interactions between actors within the innovation process to produce outcomes involves many types of learning processes (formal, informal, through networks, for individuals, groups, etc). It can also build different capacities of stakeholders and even generates new capacities to innovate. The mapping and analysis of these processes serve to trace the intermediary role of research in achieving impacts. 

… and the impacts on public policy.

The actors of public policies have often a leveraging effect, which can increase research impact. By interacting with public actors, researchers strengthen their capacities and play a role in the elaboration of public policies. When the research topic is not directly linked with public policies, researcher should try to engage public actors and increase the link between research and policy, to increase research potential contribution to impact. The analysis of the interactions between research and public actors includes the analysis of the institutional context, the analysis of interactions between public actors and other actors of the innovation process, and the analysis of the impacts of those interactions.

Tools

The innovation story

The innovations studied in ImpresS ex post and their outcomes and impacts are not the result of a linear process. CIRAD’s agricultural research is conducted in close partnership with stakeholders, academics and non-academics in different contexts. Hence, ImpresS ex post details the timeline of this often lengthy and iterative process of co-production of an innovation. Linked with the mapping of actors involved at different phases of an innovation, the timeline also sheds light on the evolution of the innovation’s stakeholder network.

The impact pathway

The impact pathway is a tool grounded in the theory-driven evaluation literature (Douthwaite, 2003). As a diagram, it represents the causal logic of an intervention (or an innovation). In the context of agricultural research, the impact pathway includes four principal elements, namely:

  • inputs: the resources used by the research team to produce scientific results and products
  • outputs: the output is generated by research activities or by the interactions of research activities with stakeholders in the projects. The output can be knowledge, scientific or not (publications, reports, database, methods …), trainings (academic or technical), expertise, technology, network, or other forms of production. The outputs can contribute to initiate the innovation process when they are appropriated by actors. In the ImpresS approach, research outputs (knowledge, prototypes …) elaborated before the intervention will be considered as inputs, whereas those elaborated during the intervention will be considered as outputs.  .
  • outcomes: the appropriation of results (outputs) by actors interacting directly or indirectly with research, which leads to new practices (agricultural or managerial), new organizations, new rules
  • primary impacts: primary impacts are measured on actors interacting directly or indirectly with research and/or major actors of the innovation process, and can be evaluatedwith those actors.
  • secondary impacts: scaling out or scaling up of this innovation to other territories and audiences and its impact.