Livelihood strategies and performance indicators: Understanding irrigation from water-users' perspectives: A Collaborative Research Project of the International Irrigation Management Institute, and the International Institute for Environment and Development

Water usersParticipatory rural appraisalFarmer participationPerformance indexesIrrigation managementGenderSocial aspectsHealthResearch methodsResearch projects

Balancing Inclusiveness, Rigour and Feasibility: Insights from Participatory Impact Evaluations in Ghana and Vietnam

This paper by Adinda Van Hemelrijck and Irene Guijt explores how impact evaluation can live up to standards broader than statistical rigour in ways that address challenges of complexity and enable stakeholders to engage meaningfully. A Participatory Impact Assessment and Learning Approach (PIALA) was piloted to assess and debate the impacts on rural poverty of two government programmes in Vietnam and Ghana funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). We discuss the trade-offs between rigour, inclusiveness and feasibility encountered in these two pilots. Trade-offs occur in every impact evaluation aiming for more than reductionist rigour, but the pilots suggest that they can be reduced by building sufficient research and learning capacity.UK Department for International Developmen

Hot issues on the M&E agenda

This report summarises the discussions and presentations of the Expert Seminar ‘Hot Issues on the M&E Agenda’, which took place in Wageningen on March 23, 2012. The Expert Seminar was organised by the Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation in collaboration with Learning by Design and Context, international cooperation. The report describes the hot issues on the M&E agenda, divided into a global top 10 of hot issues, the politics of evaluation, the battle field of rigour, and the future of evaluative practice

Conference Report: Measuring what matters in a ‘post-truth’ society : A conference on how to measure what matters, and use what matters, in order to change what should matter?

This report presents the key highlights and contributions from the conference ‘Measuring what matters in a ‘post-truth’ society’. This conference was held on the 6th of April 2017 in Wageningen, the Netherlands. This conference was the 10th annual ‘M&E on the Cutting Edge’ conference. These events are organised by Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (CDI) in collaboration with partners, in this case Oxfam GB. The conference focused on understanding how we measure what matters, and use what matters, to change what should matter, in an era of post-truth, whilst aiming towards social inclusion and global development

Developmental evaluation : applying complexity concepts to enhance innovation and use

This report summarises the discussions and presentations of the Expert Seminar ‘Developmental Evaluation’, which took place in Wageningen on March 22, 2012. The Expert Seminar was organised by the Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation in collaboration with Learning by Design and Context, international cooperation

Improving the Use of Monitoring & Evaluation Processes and Findings : Conference report

This report summarises discussions and presentations of the Conference ‘Improving the Use of Monitoring & Evaluation Processes and Findings’, which took place on March 20 and 21, 2014. This conference is part of our series of yearly ‘M&E on the cutting edge’ events. This conference particularly looked at under what conditions the use of M&E processes and findings can be improved. Report CDI-14-01

Methodologies in Development Studies:An Overview

The interdisciplinary nature of the field of Development Studies (DS) makes it hard to point towards a ‘signature’ methodology. Different development challenges bring different ideas about what the problem is (ontology) and how researchers can know about it (epistemology), as well as different research methods. The rationale for choosing a method can be ideological or pragmatic. In the field of DS, this often entails knowing what methods research commissioners see as credible and what types of evidence they find persuasive. The weight placed on the data generated by certain methods and the lack of critical attention to how it was actually produced shows the importance of a focus on methodology. In looking at, or for, the defining methodologies of DS, this chapter focuses on methodology in a relatively narrow sense: what types of sample and what combinations of methods are typically used by researchers within DS to construct credible arguments around questions of policy or practice. It describes which methodologies constitute the bulk of DS research through analysis of projects and outputs. Finally, it asks what people who generate and use DS research could do to increase its rigour and relevance (Gujit and Roche, 2014; see also Oswald, Leach and Gaventa, this volume) and how the political economy of development research funding might militate against this

Beliefs, taboos and minor crop value chains: the case of Bambara Groundnut in Malawi

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) is a source of food for smallholder farmers that is increasingly promoted for its drought tolerance, soil enhancing qualities and nutritious properties. Being an accessible crop to smallholders, it has also recently been the focus of support to develop its value chain in Malawi. However, bambara groundnut is featured in the belief systems of rural people in Malawi, and may effect and be effected by market development. Beliefs and taboos reflect the life/death meanings symbolically represented in bambara groundnut, which influences how and by whom the crop is produced and consumed. These practices lend significant control over the crop to women. These findings have important implications for development and market related interventions that work with food crops, which need to be taken into account during the design phase

Social learning in LEADER: Exogenous, endogenous and hybrid evaluation in rural development

This paper considers the relationship between the centralised exogenous, institutions and the embedded, endogenous institutions of rural governance in Europe through an examination the evaluation procedures of the European LEADER programme. LEADER is presented in the literature as progressive in terms of innovation and stakeholder engagement. Yet while the planning and management of LEADER embraces heterogeneity and participation, programmatic evaluation is centralised and held at arms length from delivery organisations. The paper reviews previous efforts to improve evaluation in LEADER and considers alternative strategies for evaluation, contrasting LEADER practice with participatory evaluation methodologies in the wider international context. Can evaluation in itself be valuable as a mode of social learning and hence a driver for endogenous development in rural communities in Europe? The paper concludes by examining the challenges in producing a hybrid form of evaluation which accommodates endogenous and exogenous values

The benefits of participatory methodologies to develop effective community dialogue in the context of a microbicide trial feasibility study in Mwanza, Tanzania

BACKGROUND: As part of a microbicide trial feasibility study among women at high-risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in Mwanza City, northern Tanzania we used participatory research tools to facilitate open dialogue and partnership between researchers and study participants. METHODS: A mobile community-based sexual & reproductive health service was established in ten city wards. Wards were divided into seventy-eight geographical clusters and representatives at cluster and ward level elected in a process facilitated by the projects Community Liaison Officer. A city-level Community Advisory Committee (CAC) with representatives from each ward was established. Workshops and community meetings at ward and city-level were conducted to explore project-related concerns using tools adapted from participatory learning and action techniques such as listing, scoring, ranking, chapatti diagrams and pair-wise matrices. RESULTS: Key issues identified included beliefs that blood specimens were being sold for witchcraft purposes; worries about specula not being clean; inadequacy of transport allowances; and delays in reporting laboratory test results to participants. To date, the project has responded by inviting members of the CAC to visit the laboratory to observe how blood and genital specimens are prepared; demonstrated the use of the autoclave to community representatives; raised reimbursement levels; introduced HIV rapid testing in the clinic; and streamlined laboratory reporting procedures. CONCLUSIONS: Participatory techniques were instrumental in promoting meaningful dialogue between the research team, study participants and community representatives in Mwanza, allowing researchers and community representatives to gain a shared understanding of project-related priority areas for intervention