ILAC Newsletter contains information about what is happening at the ILAC Programme level and also the broader community of evaluators and impact assessment specialists.

News from the ILAC Initiative:

1) New at the ILAC Website (www.cgiar-ilac.org)

ILAC has developed a new website with innovative, user-friendly tools.
In the website you will find several sections, among them are:

• ILAC publications (free download)
• About us (and the new page on ILAC Initiative and the CGIAR)
• Library (with over 1400 references on partnership, collaborative research, PME, impact assessment, and learning)
• Coming events
• ILAC newsletter

To subscribe to ILAC News, first subscribe to the website following these simple steps:
1. Go to www.cgiar-ilac.org
2. To create a new account, choose a username and password at bottom right ‘user login’.
3. Alternatively go to link http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/user/register
4. Once your account has been approved, you can download our publications and start posting your comments on our blog http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/forum/8 .

For those who have an account already, simply log in and enjoy the site. Comments and suggestions for improving the site are welcome.

2) Funding

ILAC recently submitted a proposal to an international donor seeking a major grant to continue to develop new tools for undertaking impact assessment for participatory research for poverty alleviation.  ILAC’s objectives in pursuing this grant are to:

• Improve the evaluation of agricultural research for development programmes so as to enhance the impact of research on development goals.
• Synthesize and share existing knowledge about the impact of agricultural research for development programmes and methods for impact evaluation appropriate for these programmes.
• Conduct a set of exemplary new impact evaluations to increase knowledge and understanding of the factors that lead to poverty reduction, improved livelihoods and environmental sustainability in agricultural production systems.
• Develop capacity for evaluating the impact of agricultural research for development programmes and support the use of evidence from evaluation for policy and practice.

ILAC is working on a proposal on capacity development issues. The proposal seeks to support CGIAR scientists and partners around the world. The outcomes of these two fund raising activities will be published in our next newsletter.

3) ILAC Learning Laboratory Activities

As part of the ILAC small grant activity, case studies are now engaged in a participatory exercise to reflect on and learn from their progress along the impact pathways described by each project during the planning meeting in March 2008.

Reflection questions were as:

• Has any of the actor groups changed or been modified in any significant way ?
• Has any modification been made or deemed necessary to the required change in practice as it was originally predicted?
• Are the predicted Knowledge, Attitudes and/or Skills still relevant? Has the anticipated need for Knowledge, Attitudes and/or Skills been added to or reduced in any way over this period?
• Have the originally planned small grant strategies for achieving these changes in practice and KAS been modified, refined or added to in any way?
• Has any of the anticipated small grant outputs been modified, refined or added to in any way?
• What is the justification for any of the changes you have recorded previously? What new circumstances have made these changes necessary?
• Do any of the changes you have recorded affect, in any way, your milestones and / or outcome targets?
• What significant lessons have been learned during this period of your project?
• Who has been involved in this reflexive exercise and how was it conducted?

You can find out more about the Learning Laboratory activities and the participants, by visiting the link http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/content/learning-laboratory

ILAC is planning its next Learning Laboratory meeting for September 2009, in Nairobi. The main objective of this meeting is to draw lessons from the collaborative programs / partnerships that could inform the development of partnership strategies and policies in agricultural R&D organizations.

4) ''Group Facilitation Skills for Participatory Decision-Making' Workshop

The 2009 training workshop took place in Nairobi, Kenya, from 26 to 29 May. The course is being hosted by ICRAF. This important training helps build the essential knowledge, attitudes and skills that project managers and team leaders need to engage in effective participatory decision making. The course was delivered by Dr. Sarah Fisk, of Community at Work (San Francisco, California). More information at http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/content/next-training-facilitation

5) ILAC Initiative Publications

Ekboir, J. (2009) The CGIAR at a Crossroads: Assessing the role of international
agricultural research in poverty alleviation from an innovation systems perspective. ILAC Working Paper 9, Rome, Institutional Learning and Change Initiative.

http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/files/publications/working_papers/ILAC_Working...

ILAC Briefs in the final stage of publications:

• ILAC Brief 22: Utilization-Focused Evaluation by Michael Quinn Patton and Douglas Horton
• ILAC Brief 23: Participation in Virtual Environments: Three efficient Web tools for horizontal communication and collaboration by Peter Shelton, Petr Kosina, Simone Staiger-Rivas and Nancy White

These publications will be available from June for free download on the ILAC website (www.cgiar-ilac.org). A limited number of paper copies may be obtained upon request. Contact ilac@cgiar.org for more information.

News and Events from the Broader Community:

2009 Annual Canadian Evaluation Society Conference

The theme of the 2009 Annual Canadian Evaluation Society Conference is “Value in Evaluation”. It will be held in Ottawa from May 31 - June 3, 2009. Ronald Mackay and Doug Horton will present a paper entitled “The evolution of evaluation practices within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)”
The paper will cover influences on the CGIAR’s evaluation practices and products considered from four perspectives: (i) its external operating environment; (ii) internal operating environment (institutions and culture); (iii) characteristics of programs; and (iv) personal factors . Conclusions address factors that demonstrate greatest effect on current evaluation practices of the CGIAR, and also draw some implications as to how the evaluation of international development programs is evolving.
Information about the 2009 Annual Canadian Evaluation Society Conference at:
http://c2009.evaluationcanada.ca/index.cgi?s=1&ss=0&_lang=en

Upcoming Events

• South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) conference; 17 to 21 August, 2009; Emperor’s Palace; Johannesburg, South Africa http://www.samea.org.za/samea-8.phtml
• Australasian Evaluation Society International Conference; Workshops: 31 August – 1 September 2009; Conference: 2-4 September 2009, Canberra, Australia, http://www.aesconference2009.com.au/
• Outcome Mapping Training Workshop; September 21 - 24, 2009 - Vancouver, Canada http://www.outcomemapping.ca/