Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

A two-day workshop, held in Nairobi, Kenya on February 3-4 2010 brought together key stakeholders representing NGOs, the private and public sector, policy bodies, research bodies, and donor organisations in order to stimulate dialogue and increase understanding of how to connect agricultural research with development through partnerships including current challenges, good practice cases, and an action agenda for the way forward.

The aim of this website is to be the main point for information throughout and beyond the workshop both for workshop attendees and the wider community of agricultural research partnerships and their partner organisations. Please explore this site to learn more about who is involved, the objective of the initiative, including challenges facing agricultural partnerships, good practice cases, and finally the outcomes from the workshop.

News from the ILAC Initiative:

1. Vacancy ILAC Coordinator

Bioversity International is recruiting a new ILAC Coordinator. Jamie Watts, Coordinator since 2003, has accepted a position as Senior Evaluation Officer with the World Food Programme. Jamie made a valuable contribution to ILAC Programme and the CGIAR. We wish her every success with her new plans.

ILAC's achievements from 2005 to 2009:

• A creation of a Learning Laboratory in which professionals from seven collaborative research programmes come together to share knowledge (more information at http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/content/learning-laboratory)

• Sponsorship of 7 training workshops on "Group Facilitation Skills for Participatory Decision-Making"; 140 professionals from CGIAR and partner organizations trained (more information at http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/content/facilitation-training-workshop)

• Web based resource center visited by over 9,000 people from developing countries in the last 12 months (more information at http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/)

The ILAC Initiative aims to increase the contribution of the CGIAR to poverty alleviation by improving planning, monitoring and evaluation of collaborative agricultural research for development. ILAC contributes specifically by:

1. Building capacity
2. Providing technical support to scientists and managers
3. Mobilizing funds and resources
4. Facilitating knowledge sharing
5. Influencing research and development policies to promote institutional learning and change

A document containing ILAC contributions to Bioversity International, its host, is attached below.
 

The project entitled "Impact Evaluation Approaches for Collaborative Agricultural Research & Development" aims to improve the evaluation of applied agricultural R&D programs, so as to improve the use of evaluation in R&D decision-making and program improvement. The specific focus of the project is on the contributions of collaborative R&D programs to sustainable poverty reduction.

Central to the strategy of the ILAC Initiative is a Learning Laboratory in which professionals from collaborative research programmes come together to share knowledge and experiences, experiment with new approaches for facilitating innovation for poverty reduction, and evaluate the results.

The challenges: