This document discusses partnerships that are important for achieving the CGIAR's System-Level Outcomes of reducing rural poverty, improving food security, improving nutrition and health, and sustainably managing natural resources. It emphasizes that long-term impact pathways depend on partnerships with local actors. It also highlights the ISPC's role in convening discussions, assessing research programs, and identifying issues of integration that benefit from effective partnerships.

1. GCARD 2012
Partnerships to Achieve Food and
Nutrition Security
Sub-session P1:
National Food Security
ISPC
CGIAR

2. Partnerships for achieving the CGIAR’s
System-level Outcomes (SLOs)
 Reducing rural poverty
 Long and protracted impact pathways
 R4D interface; Partnerships with local actors crucial
 Partnerships for accumulating data and evidence of progress (i.e. impact assessment)
 Improving food security
 Partnerships on “cutting edge” for commodity and production “systems” research
 Partnerships on market/price and supply/demand analyses
 Partnerships on policy research
 Improving nutrition and health
 New area for the CGIAR; unexplored impact pathways
 Complementarities between agriculture and health sectors
 Issues and partnerships to be explored at Science Forum 2013: Nutrition and health
outcomes: targets for agricultural research
 Sustainable management of natural resources
 Challenges of temporal and geospatial scale; local solutions and impacts
 The agriculture and environment nexus (Science Forum 2011): controversies and synergies
ISPC
CGIAR

3. The “P” in ISPC
 ISPC’s role in helping to catalyze effective partnerships and to
foster linkages with most appropriate scientific communities:
 Convening periodic high-level scientific dialogues on high
priority issues of strategic importance to CGIAR
 Holding a biennial Science Forum to stimulate dialogue
and foster linkages between sectors (e.g. agriculture and
health) and scientific communities (e.g. agricultural and
environmental research)
 ISPC assessment of CRPs includes evaluation of partnership
arrangements and strategies to achieve impact on SLOs
 ISPC’s analysis of CRPs identifies issues of integration and
synergies , which often depend on effective partnerships
ISPC
CGIAR

4. ISPC’s current thinking: Theory of
change, impact pathways, partnerships
 THEORY OF CHANGE: the processes that define Impact Pathways
THE HOW that program designers need to consider; some
hypotheses are known, others must be tested
 Intermediate Development Outcomes – THE CRP AIMS
 Results planned in Program context
 Not completely under the control of CRPs/Centers
 Result of research outputs, effective partnerships and collaborations,
interventions at multiple scales, appropriate policies and institutional and
resource environments
 System-level Outcomes – THE SYSTEM AIMS
 Desired impacts for the CGIAR System at a highly aggregated level
(large-scale impact)
 Impact assessment of aggregate effects; evaluation of IDOs as
pathway to impact on SLOs
ISPC
CGIAR

5. Planning for intermediate development
outcomes (IDOs)
Intermediate Increased productivity in Improvements in a
development agricultural systems in specified value chain
target domain
outcomes (CRP level)
AN ITERATIVE PROCESS
Adoption/ Adaptation of best
adaptation Adoption of varieties; management practices
participatory breeding for local conditions
Research NARS use of germplasm;
outcomes release of varieties
FARMER AND NARES CAPACITY, RESOURCES
Outputs Improved standards; Policy Management
Improved germplasm safety guidelines advice practices
CRP type Commodities NRM Policy Systems
ISPC
CGIAR

6. Planning IDOs in the context of SLOs
System-level Outcomes FOOD
POVERTY HEALTH SUSTAINABILITY
= long-term IMPACT SECURITY
DEVELOPMENT, GROWTH
Increased productivity More resilient
IDOs value chains
(System level) Increased
Increased consumption of empowerment
nutritious foods
UPSCALING
Increased productivity in Better animal
IDOs commodity systems in Reduced health practices
target domain deforestation at target sites Functioning
(CRP level)
Increased water collective
Improvements in use efficiency in Biofortified crop action schemes
value chain X target site X consumed in country X
OUTSCALING ISPC
CGIAR

7. Partnerships along impact pathways
5-10 year time frame
Research
process
 Planning with  Partner engagement  Adoption
partners in research studies
 Policy and end-user  Appropriate metrics  Outcome
analysis and monitoring monitoring
 Research process  progress  Impact
 Feedback, iterative  science advances assessment
adjustment  deliverables (IDOs and SLOs)
Outcomes
TOC and impacts
Multiple actors
Feedback loop ISPC
CGIAR