A participatory method to assess the contribution of agricultural research to societal changes in developing countries

Faure Guy, Blundo Canto Genowefa, Devaux-Spatarakis Agathe, Le Guérroue Jean-Louis, Mathe Syndhia, Temple Ludovic, Toillier Aurélie, Triomphe Bernard, Hainzelin Etienne. 2020. A participatory method to assess the contribution of agricultural research to societal changes in developing countries. Research Evaluation, 29 (2) : 158-170.

Quartile : Q2, Sujet : INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE

Résumé : Over the last decade, societal pressure has increased on public research agencies to provide evidence that their research contributes to achieve development goals. To address this challenge, the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (Cirad), developed an ex-post impact assessment method based on the impact pathway approach, called Impact of Research in the South (ImpresS). The reconstruction of the impact pathway identifies and assesses research outputs, outcomes, and impacts on development over long-time spans, taking into account the contribution of other stakeholders, projects, and contextual factors. By applying mixed methods and participatory approaches, ImpresS involves key actors in assessing the contribution of research to impacts in innovation processes. Such a participatory approach raises, however, questions about the advantages and disadvantages of participation in impact assessment. This article examines whether and how participation affects the results of an evaluation and the methodological challenges this poses. The analysis is based on 13 case studies covering different innovation processes, countries, and time spans. The main results show that participation, combined with triangulation of information including quantitative and qualitative data, strengthens the explanation of the causal relationships among outputs, outcomes, and impacts. It helps reveal a large and diversified list of impacts based on the perception of actors, especially uncovering positive and negative impacts unexpected by researchers. However, participation may render other impacts less visible, especially those related to environmental and political issues. Furthermore, participatory evaluation entangles challenges linked to expectations, divergent perceptions, power dynamics, and social inequality, which must be carefully addressed to provide robust and transparent evaluation results.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : recherche agronomique, approche participative, évaluation de l'impact, innovation, politique d'innovation, pays en développement

Mots-clés complémentaires : Politique publique

Mots-clés libres : Participatory approaches, Impact assessment, Impact pathway, Innovation, Outcome, Evaluation

Classification Agris : A50 - Recherche agronomique
E14 - Économie et politique du développement

Champ stratégique Cirad : CTS 2 (2019-) - Transitions agroécologiques

Auteurs et affiliations

• Faure Guy, CIRAD-ES-UMR INNOVATION (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0001-8327-6085 - auteur correspondant
• Blundo Canto Genowefa, CIRAD-ES-UMR INNOVATION (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0003-4182-3663
• Devaux-Spatarakis Agathe, Université de Montpellier (FRA)
• Le Guérroue Jean-Louis, UNB [Universidade de Brasilia] (BRA)
• Mathe Syndhia, CIRAD-ES-UMR INNOVATION (CMR) ORCID: 0000-0002-6981-514X
• Temple Ludovic, CIRAD-ES-UMR INNOVATION (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0001-8723-4245
• Toillier Aurélie, CIRAD-ES-UMR INNOVATION (FRA)
• Triomphe Bernard, CIRAD-ES-UMR INNOVATION (MEX)
• Hainzelin Etienne, CIRAD-DG-Direction générale (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0003-1303-3082

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/594882/)

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