ILRI program outline: Impact at Scale
Iain Wright and Siboniso Moyo
ILRI Institute Planning Meeting
4-7 October 2016

Why do we need an Impact at Scale
Program?
• Our core business is research for development
• But…… we are being held accountable for ensuring
that research output are translated into outcomes and
ultimately to impact at scale – often the end point of
our impact pathway
• SRF specifies targets
• These targets are cascaded down to CRPs
• We need to maximize the probability of delivering
these targets

Donors are asking us to scale out
technologies and other interventions
• LIVES (Global Affairs Canada - Ethiopia)
• TATA-ILRI partnership on: Enhancing sustainable
livelihoods of marginal communities through targeted
livestock research (Sir Ratan Tata Trust - India)
• Accelerated Value Chain Development (USAID – Kenya)
• Mali Livestock Technology Scaling Program (USAID – Mali)
• Scaling up of the delivery of the infection and treatment
method (ITM) in Tanzania through facilitation of the ITM
delivery value chain (USAID- Tanzania)
• Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (AfDB
– targeted countries in Africa)

CGIAR Centres are seen to have:
• Technologies that can be scaled to bring about
transformational changes in agriculture
• Access to highly skilled and specialist staff
• The ability to take a more systematic approach to
development that is sometimes the case with
development projects
• Strong capacity in M&E
• Strong project management capacity
• Simple contracting mechanism

Impact at Scale Program Strategy
• Responsible for the management of
scaling/development projects (lead or sub-contractor)
• Ensure that technologies and approaches that we (and
others) have proven are taken to scale and
incorporated into development projects
• Unique Selling Point (USP) – evidence based
• Where ILRI is supporting a development project with
research, the research component will be led by a
research program

Links to research programs
Impact at
Scale
Research outputs
Technologies
Organizational arrangements
Business models etc
Knowledge gaps
Research questions
Prog
2
Prog
3
Prog
1
Other
research
providers
PartnersILRI
Programs

Sphere of
Influence
Sphere of Control
Theory of Change
Corporate Services
People & Organizational
Development
Communications and
Knowledge Management
Business Development
Capacity Development
Intellectual Property / Legal
Regional Representation
Research Methods
Sustainable
Livestock
Systems
Policy, Value
Chains and
Livelihoods
BECA
Livestock
Genetics
Feed and Forages
Development
Animal and
Human Health
Impact at Scale Sphere of Interest

Possible Structure
DDG
Program
Leader
Project 1 Project 2 Project 3
MEL
Program
Manager
Accountant
Admin Asst
CapDev?
MEL/Impact
Comms/KM

Operating principles
• Researchers from other programs can contribute a %
of time to projects – and might lead projects
• Larger projects may have dedicated program
management, comms/KM MEL, CapDev staff etc.
• Working with and through local partners to deliver on
the ground (government, NGOs, CBOs, private sector)

Management challenges in Impact at Scale
• We need the capacity to manage and collaborate on
‘development’ projects
• Different set of skills, resources etc.
• Focus on delivery, targets and impact
• More flexible management
• Fast decision making
• More nimble support services
• Do we need a roster of consultants to respond to
consultancy requests? We need to be able to mobilize
quickly.

Some caveats and risks
• All programs need to demonstrate impact
• Need to be careful not to been to be in competition
with established players – so we need to establish our
own niche.
• We need to establish a track record on delivery
• Need to ensure relevance across regions (build local
networks).
• Ensure the program is fully integrated in ILRI and not
seen as separate

Opportunities
•Demonstrate the relevance of our
research
•Monitoring, Evaluation and
Learning
•Influence development project
design

This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions
to the CGIAR system