Enrico Bonaiuti is Research Team Leader for Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at CGIAR’s International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and Program Management Officer at the International Potato Center (CIP). He leads the Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Impact Assessment (MELIA) activities for the OneCGIAR Genetic Innovation Action Area. Etienne Vignola-Gagné is an analyst of public policy, innovation systems, and organizational change who currently works for research evaluation team Science-Metrix at Elsevier.
On February 27 and 28, 2023, the two experts attended a hybrid workshop – held in Rome, Italy and online – about the CGIAR’s Independent Advisory and Evaluation Service (IAES)’s new set of evaluation guidelines. These build on the CGIAR Independent Science for Development Council (ISDC)’s Quality of Research for Development (QoR4D) Frame of Reference, and provide the framing, criteria, dimensions, and methods for assessing QoR4D – both within CGIAR and in other like-minded organizations. The event was designed to help practitioners across and beyond the CGIAR System to understand and apply the new guidelines in their own evaluative contexts.
We spoke to Bonaiuti and Vignola-Gagné to find out more about their experience of the workshop and their aspirations in this arena going forward.