IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 26 - Exploration of a Methodology for Assessing the Impact of Policy Engagement : What Impact and How to Assess It

While policy engagement is increasingly considered a key dimension of development cooperation, there have been few attempts by development agencies to systematically monitor and evaluate the impact of their work in this area. In recent years, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has sought to strengthen its engagement in country-level policy processes, and to develop a range of tools to more effectively monitor and evaluate this work. In this context, it commissioned a piece of work to develop and test a methodology for assessing its policy impact. The exercise served to review four purposively sampled IFAD policy engagement activities, in India, Indonesia, Nepal and Viet Nam, and analyse their impact; identify the factors contributing to, or limiting, the outcomes achieved and draw out lessons for future policy work; and propose a replicable methodology that could be used for similar exercises elsewhere. The methodology was found to provide, in a relatively short period of time, an independent appraisal of IFAD’s role and effectiveness in relation to the policy issues in question, based on multiple external perspectives. The paper concludes that the methodology offers a credible, cost-effective and potentially replicable approach to appraising policy impact, both within IFAD and for other development agencies conducting policy-related activities, and it makes suggestions on strengthening the methodology and increasing its operational relevance