2008-09 activities

As identified in ACIAR's Annual Operating Plan 2008-09, the impact assessment program is undertaking the following activities during 2008-09: 

Project-specific

• Publish five assessments of the impacts of completed projects in 2008–09. Measurement of economic growth, environmental, social and capacity-building impacts will be incorporated where identified as important and possible. This year we will continue the process of selecting some projects for assessment using a stratified sampling process. The stratification of projects will be based on a range of considerations such as program area, geographic location, types of research and sector of the economy.
• Review and publish the 2008–09 project leader adoption studies for the set of large projects concluded in 2003–04.

Capacity building

• Develop closer links with partner-country impact assessment groups to enhance estimation of technology adoption levels in future assessments. Training for partner-country impact assessment groups will also be included where appropriate. This training will include collaboration with the ATSE Crawford Fund.
• Develop collaboration with international CG centres in impact assessment activities, particularly of projects jointly funded through ACIAR.
• Provide feedback on the implications of impact assessment studies for research project development and management within ACIAR, through ‘lessons learnt’ style meetings with all staff.
• Enhance the clarification and estimation of the outcomes of new projects, by assisting project research groups during peer review of their proposals and by including impact analysis in the project design. In particular, summaries of the implications of impact studies will be provided to meetings of these groups.

Thematic studies

• Review the application and impact of ACIAR forages research activities and determine implications of the impacts for future research in this area.
• Undertake an assessment of at least one program of research for at least one significant partner country.
• Continue to develop a database of all past impact assessment studies and start a process of project impact assessment summaries (PIAS) studies, to provide a basis for and complement adoption and impact assessment studies.
• Work closely with the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) to ensure ACIAR’s impact assessment work maintains close links with ODE’s activities.