It’s not every day that you can confidently say your work helped improve the lives of millions of people. But the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) did just that, and much more. Now a new PIM evaluation sheds light on one of the secrets behind its success: effective partnerships, while echoing CGIAR System-wide lessons and recommendations for One CGIAR from the CAS-commissioned 2021 Synthesis of evaluative evidence from a decade of CGIAR Research Programs.
In late 2021, the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), published the partnership evaluation report. This PIM-commissioned evaluation responded to one of the ten recommendations of the 2020 CGIAR Research Program evaluative review of PIM and addressed related key issues raised in the 2021 CGIAR Research Program Synthesis – the last two were commissioned by the CGIAR System Council through the independent evaluation function of the CGIAR Advisory Services (CAS) Shared Secretariat. Notably, one of the evaluators of the PIM partnership evaluation was also involved in the 2021 Synthesis, Deborah Templeton.
A recommendation of the external and independently commissioned 2021 Synthesis was to create strategies and a more systematic approach for developing partnerships and institutional capacity (Rec. N. 32). Building on the key findings of the 2021 Synthesis, and drawing on the framework of the 2017 IEA partnership evaluation, the main goal of the PIM-commissioned evaluation was to gain an in-depth understanding of all aspects related to PIM partnerships. During the evaluation an inventory of current partnerships was created towards improving stakeholders’ understanding of the key drivers behind effective partnership formation. The intention was to distil key learnings to inform the new CGIAR Initiatives on the best ways to create and maintain successful partnerships and enhance the potential of CGIAR to contribute to innovations, policies and capacity strengthening.