Agricultural research in the Global South: Steering research beyond impact promises

Abstract

Applied research is under increasing pressure to demonstrate its social utilityAgriculture is at the heart of many burning global issues, and agricultural research for development (AR4D) is increasingly called upon to address multiple social challenges related to demographic, food system, ecological and climate transitions. However, funding for AR4D is shrinking. Funders and policy makers are asking researchers and their institutions to demonstrate convincingly not only how public investments in research generate excellent scientifi c results, but also how they contribute to producing innovations that have tangible impacts on development. Such impacts may relate, for instance, to food security, sustainable development or climate change adaptation.This expectation is explicit in funding calls, and has led researchers to promise to deliver short-term impacts in their proposals. However, such promises oft en tend to be a rhetorical exercise, since impacts are seldom monitored over the long term. To respond to this issue, CIRAD has decided to invest in developing a "culture of impact" that aims to persp ctive e June 2017 42 change research practices lastingly, increasing the ability of research to achieve development impacts. ImpresS: a participatory method to assess research impactsIn order to better understand its contribution to innovation processes in the Global South and to measure its impacts, CIRAD developed the ImpresS evaluation method (IMPact of RESearch in the South), which aims to answer the following questions ex post: > What are the lasting changes in society catalysed by research interventions? > How did these changes come about and why? > What was the actual contribution of research? > How diverse, intense and far-reaching are the impacts associated with these changes?ImpresS adopts a participatory approach that incorporates the viewpoints of the diff erent actors involved in a given innovation process. In 2015, the ImpresS method was applied to 13 case studies covering clusters of projects over the longThe impacts of agricultural research for development are long-term and very diverse -positive, unexpected, sometimes negative. To assess and understand these impacts, ImpresS, a participatory evaluation method that incorporates the viewpoints of actors on the ground, was tested on 13 research case studies conducted by CIRAD and its partners in diff erent countries. The central conclusion is that research institutions and their funders need to change their practices if they wish to achieve long-term impacts at scale. For research, this means accepting to play multiple roles, collaborating with innovation and policy actors, fostering learning, and developing explicit hypothetical but plausible ex ante impact pathways. For sponsors and funders, it implies considering a wider range of impacts, planning action in the long term, fostering articulation between projects with similar goals, and supporting adaptive learning and management.Agricultural research in the Global South: steering research beyond impac...

Chemins d’impacts de la recherche agronomique appliquée à un projet de fertilisation phosphatée de la riziculture pluviale à Madagascar

“…Elle répond aux critiques adressées par Röling (38) Ces démarches RAP d'accompagnement de l'innovation vont plus loin en considérant explicitement les utilisateurs comme producteurs de connaissances (20). Pourtant dans le projet structurant notre étude de cas, cette production de connaissances est une externalité révélée par une démarche d'analyse du processus.…”

“…Pour mieux répondre aux besoins sociétaux d'améliorer les impacts de la recherche sur le développement, les organisations de recherche investissent la construction de référentiels méthodologiques dont la mobilisation génère une « culture d'impact » (20).…”

Sustainable agriculture for health and prosperity: stakeholders’ roles, legitimacy and modus operandi

“…Although the pressure on AR4D "to deliver" has grown in recent years, competition for research funding has also increased. In our experience, this has contributed to a situation where, to secure funding, researchers often over-promise on what they can deliver during the lifetime of a research project and/or on the extent to which their research products (generated during the lifetime of a funded project) are going to contribute to outcomes and impacts (that may realistically be beyond a project's lifetime) (Hainzelin et al 2017). This has several consequences, not least that researchers generally feel the pressure to focus on "quick wins" rather than "working towards the kinds of long-term transformations that are needed to combat poverty and enhance global food security" (Leeuwis, Klerkx, and Schut 2017).…”

Comprendre la contribution de la recherche à l'innovation collective par l'exploration de mécanismes de renforcement de capacité

“…2) pour leurs impacts positifs reconnus sur le développement (Triomphe et al, 2015 ;Hainzelin et al, 2017). Ils représentent une diversité de domaines d'innovation (innovations techniques, sociales, organisationnelles, innovations de service).…”

“…Le modèle de la recherche partenariale aujourd'hui en vigueur dans plusieurs instituts de recherche finalisée pour le développement, comme le Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), l'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) ou l'Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) en France, permet de mettre en relation les chercheurs avec les acteurs du monde économiques et leurs besoins d'innovation, mais précise mal les modalités de collaboration entre les partenaires au cours d'un projet d'innovation, ainsi que les contributions spécifiques des chercheurs (Audoux et Gillet, 2011). Dans ce contexte, le CIRAD, à travers son programme ImpresS (Hainzelin et al, 2017) s'interroge aujourd'hui sur la manière dont il peut mieux mobiliser ses chercheurs pour augmenter sa contribution à l'innovation et au développement durable.…”