So what difference does it make? Assessing the outcomes and impacts of farmer participatory research

Abstract

This paper provides a brief overview of what constitutes valid evidence for the efficacy and impact of participatory research drawing on the participatory research impact assessment literature and the author‟s experience of advising, reviewing and evaluating projects and programmes which have participatory research components, or are undertaking research within multistakeholder participatory processes. There has been important progress in demonstrating the different outcomes made by participatory approaches, but there remain differences in how the contribution of participatory research is judged, what evidence is considered valid and by whom