An Evaluation of CGIAR Centers' Impact Assessment Work on Irrigation and Water Management Research

Merrey, D.J. 2015. An Evaluation of CGIAR Centers’ Impact Assessment Work on Irrigation and Water Management Research. Rome, Italy, Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA), CGIAR Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC). 83 pp

A significant proportion of CGIAR research investment has been spent on policy and natural resource management (NRM). However, compared to other areas of research e.g., crop germplasm improvement (CGI), there appears to be relatively few impact assessments (IAs) in this domain. To fill this gap, one of the activities of the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA)-coordinated Strengthening Impact Assessment in the CGIAR (SIAC) program targets assessments of these presumably ‘under-evaluated areas’ of CGIAR research, including irrigation and water management, agroforestry, and policy and social sciences.

This report synthesizes the findings and recommendations of a critical review of IAs of CGIAR irrigation and water management research. Critical reviews such as this one are intended to be the first step in encouraging new IAs of the under-evaluated topic in question, as well as provide inputs on improving the quality of IAs.

This research was supported by ISPC-SPIA under the grant “Strengthening Impact Assessment in the CGIAR (SIAC).” (https://cas.cgiar.org/spia/news/strengthening-impact-assessment-cgiar-siac-2013-2016)