CIMMYT's Formal Training Activities: Perceptions of Impact from Former Trainees, NARS Research Leaders, and CIMMYT Scientists

This report provides information on the impact of CIMMYT training, based on a set of background interviews with center staff, reviews of relevant data and documents provided by CIMMYT, and two surveys: one of research leaders in trainees’ countries of origin and one of participants in CIMMYT courses on maize and wheat improvement, quality protein maize, soil-borne pathogens of cereals, and maize stress breeding during 2002-04. Evidence indicates that training provided by CIMMYT not only furnishes new knowledge and skills, but results in new ways of thinking about research and new research partnerships, is often shared within trainees’ home institutions, and changes the way the institutions work. The evidence in this study establishes the existence of impact but does not support conclusions about its extent.Training programmes, Training courses, Education, Extension, Agricultural research, Diffusion of research, Evaluation, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, C10, A50,

CIMMYT's Formal Training Activities: Perceptions of Impact from Former Trainees, NARS Research Leaders, and CIMMYT Scientists

This report provides information on the impact of CIMMYT training, based on a set of background interviews with center staff, reviews of relevant data and documents provided by CIMMYT, and two surveys: one of research leaders in trainees’ countries of origin and one of participants in CIMMYT courses on maize and wheat improvement, quality protein maize, soil-borne pathogens of cereals, and maize stress breeding during 2002-04. Evidence indicates that training provided by CIMMYT not only furnishes new knowledge and skills, but results in new ways of thinking about research and new research partnerships, is often shared within trainees’ home institutions, and changes the way the institutions work. The evidence in this study establishes the existence of impact but does not support conclusions about its extent

1 Evaluation Policy: An Introduction and Overview

Evaluation policy is of considerable importance, especially in relation to the limite

Evaluation Policy and Evaluation Practice: Where Do We Go From Here?

The author develops the basic idea of evaluation policy, describes a practical model for development and revision of evaluation policies (including a taxonomy, structure, and set of principles), and suggests critical challenges and opportunities for the future of evaluation policy. An evaluation policy is any rule or principle that a group or organization uses to guide its decisions and actions when doing evaluation. Every entity that engages in evaluation, including government agencies, private businesses, and nonprofit organizations, has evaluation policies. Sometimes they are explicit and written; more often they are implicit and ad hoc principles or norms that have simply evolved over time

7 Evaluation Policy and Evaluation Practice: Where Do We Go From Here?

Three issues for evaluation policy and practice are described: evaluation policy dimensions, evaluation policy instruments, and the political and economic environment for evaluation policy. Selected future directions are outlined, including the need to describe the evaluation policy landscape, further articulate an evaluation policy taxonomy, and develop and implement tactics for influencing evaluation policy, with particular attention to the role of professional associations. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. If the context of evaluation practice is largely defined by evaluation policies, then evaluation policy gives us a way to think about systematically influencing that context. Through policy, such principles as technical quality, respect for people, and utility can be explicitly and systematically built into the evaluation expectations of an organization rather than being values we fight for, one evaluation at a time. Of course, it is never this simple (Julnes & Rog, 2007). To be a player in the world of evaluation policy making, we need to develop a language for communicating about types o