Managing research for development interventions often means taking decisions while dealing with complexity and uncertainty. Adaptive and collaborative management strategies that promote reflexivity and learning are increasingly recognized as key success factors for these interventions.  

Since 2021, the ImpresS team is working with researchers and their partners to design and implement M&E approaches and tools that are inspired by the principles of utilization-focused evaluation (Patton, 2008) and by the growing literature and practice around outcome-oriented approaches to foster evaluative thinking and adaptive management.  

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems often focus on responding to donor’s requirements in terms of accountability and transparency. These are important functions but should not be the only ones. M&E systems designed around clear evaluative questions formulated by implementing partners and stakeholders have the potential for generating useful and usable insights that can effectively support informed decision-making, strategic and operational planning, partnership management, communication, knowledge management and learning.