The ILAC Initiative consists of an evolving community of individuals committed to increasing the contributions of agricultural research to sustainable poverty reduction around the world. ILAC promotes research, methodology development and capacity development to increase understanding of...

The Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP) shows how the principles of institutional learning and change (ILAC) can be applied. This Brief outlines the basic components of the SSA CP and highlights various ILAC features of the Program. These include an innovation systems orientation; an...

Outcome mapping is a methodology for planning, monitoring and evaluating development initiatives that aim to bring about social change. The process of outcome mapping helps a project team or program to be specific about the actors it targets, the changes it expects to see and the strategies it...

Since it was conceptualized in the late 1980s as a research methodology and change paradigm, the technique of ‘appreciative inquiry’ (AI) has proved to be highly effective for capturing the positive features of an organization or social system and energizing the members to strive for higher...

Farmers and businesses need to adapt constantly if they are to survive and compete in the rapidly evolving environment associated with the contemporary agricultural sector. Rethinking agricultural research as part of a dynamic system of innovation could help to design ways of creating and...

Utilization-focused evaluation (UFE) is based on the principle that an evaluation should be judged by its utility. So no matter how technically sound and methodologically elegant, an evaluation is not truly a good evaluation unless the findings are used. UFE is a framework for enhancing the...

An institutional history is a narrative that records key points about how institutional arrangements – new ways of working – evolve over time creating more effective ways to achieve goals. It can be used to document institutional innovations in projects and to highlight barriers to change....