Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

Interview with Javier Ekboir, ILAC coordinator (in Spanish with subtitles in English)

After a field trip to the Cañete River Basin in Peru, Javier Ekboir talked with us about his impressions about what he saw, the rural dynamics he could perceive and some common aspects he found with other places in the world. Pay attention about his interesting thoughts about how globalization could be an opportunity for some cultures, but also a problem for some populations.

ILAC, through its project called BetterEvaluation, in partnership with RMIT, ODI and Pact, and funded by IFAD and Rockefeller Foundation, participated and co-sponsored a series of activities at the 3rd Biennial South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) Conference in Johannesburg (5-9 September 2011).
The activities included:
• One-day pre-conference workshop on BetterEvaluation
• Exhibit booth
• Sponsor the Conference Welcome and Cocktail
• Paper Session
• Lunch Session

News from the ILAC Initiative:

ILAC’s New Mission

Following the recent changes in the CGIAR, ILAC adapted its mission and strategy to better contribute to the change process. The ILAC initiative continues to foster learning from experience and use of the lessons learned to improve the design and implementation of agricultural research and development programs; however, our future work will emphasize helping the CGIAR Consortium Office and the Centers to develop new ways of partnership and research models, and by creating a space for reflection on the future of the CGIAR.
ILAC’s strategy detailing the actions to be implemented to reach these goals has been recently published and can be found in http://www.cgiar-ilac.org/files/ideas_for_change_ilac_17feb.pdf .

Most changes in the CGIAR have occurred in a decentralized manner and few lessons have been drawn from these various experiences. To change in a more deliberate way, the CGIAR needs to develop the capacity to use adaptive management approaches (i.e., to learn during implementation and adapt the strategies as problems and opportunities emerge). To learn how to develop this capacity, ILAC has teamed up with the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) to try out a structure for decentralized experimentation with centralized learning.

What is BetterEvaluation?
BetterEvaluation is an international collaboration to improve evaluation. BetterEvaluation is designed to support practitioners to share their knowledge and experience to take the field forward and develop fresh, innovative, and novel approaches to evaluation.

At the heart of the project is an interactive web-based platform about evaluation methods and approaches that supports evaluators and evaluation commissioners to choose the most appropriate combinations of evaluation approaches and methods, and to implement these methods well.

Horton, D., Prain, G., Thiele, G. (2010) Perspectives on Partnership: Highlights of a Literature Review. ILAC Brief No. 25. Rome, Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative

Whitty, B. (2010) An accountability framework for technological innovation. ILAC Brief No. 24. Rome, Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative