Presented by Beliyou Haile, IFPRI at the Africa RISING–CSISA Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Meeting, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 11-13 November 2013

1. Overview of Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next
Generation (Africa RISING) and its Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Beliyou Haile, IFPRI
Africa RISING–CSISA Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Meeting,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 11-13 November 2013

2. Overview of Africa RISING Program
Africa
RISING
A 5-year R4D program with 3 projects, an M&E and communications
• Cereal-based farming systems in the Guinea Savannah Zone of WA
• Cereal-based farming systems in ESA
• Crop-livestock systems of the Ethiopian Highlands
Goal
Create opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of
hunger and poverty through sustainable intensification(SI)
Objectives
• Identify and evaluate demand-driven options for SI
• Evaluate/document/share innovative approaches for delivering and
integrating innovations for SI
• Create opportunities for program participants to move out of
poverty and improve their nutrition
• Facilitate partner-led dissemination of integrated innovations for SI
Hypotheses • Integration, adoption, trade-off, scalability, sequencing

3. Overview of Africa RISING Program
Outputs
•
•
•
•
Outcomes
• Sustainably  production and productivity
•  understanding of ecosystem stability at a landscape level
• Dissemination of integrated innovations beyond AR action sites
Situation analysis
Integrated systems improvement
Scaling and delivery of integrated innovation
Integrated M&E system
• Improved livelihood through  agricultural output, diversified
income,  vulnerability, and improved nutrition
• Innovative approaches feeding into new development programs
More info.
http://africa-rising.net/
http://africa-rising.wikispaces.com/

4. M&E of Africa RISING Program
 Support effective project management
 Fulfill reporting requirements
 Generate knowledge on what works
 Data/analytical components of the M&E system
 Delineation and characterization of target
farming systems
 Inventory of technologies
 Ex ante evaluations
 Attribution assessment

5. M&E Activities
 Mega-site stratification by drivers of SI and creation
of “development domains”
 Identification of representative action research and
control sites
 Open access M&E data management platform
 Reporting on FtF indicators
 Household and community surveys
 Site visits and focus groups
 Meetings (survey design, project review & planning)

6. Some M&E Challenges
 Sustainability and its dimensions: indicators and
benchmarks
 Compiling and verifying data on FtF indicators
 Sequencing: selection of action sites before
setting up of specific research activities
 Engagement and communication (delays in
recruitment of local M&E coordinators
 Delays in baseline surveys

7. Impact Evaluation (IE)
 Evaluation questions
 Did the program contribute to program goal/objectives?
 Did it increase agricultural productivity?
 Are the program’s approaches replicable/scalable?
 Did farmers adopt new/improved technology(s)/practices?
 What are the tradeoffs among different impacts?
 How does impact vary across different domains, geographies,
household types, and gender?
 Are the program-induced improvements sustainable?
 Did the program demonstrate implementation methods that
other projects can use?

8. IE Design (for Malawi)
Action Sites
Beneficiary HHs
Control Sites
Non-beneficiary HHs
Spillover
effects
Program
impact
Control HHs

9. IE in Tanzania – RCT Design
 Babati district
 Research questions
 How does access to agricultural inputs impact
adoption?
 How does training impact adoption?
 Is there complementarity between input and training?
 Are there any distributional effects? What explains the
variance?
 Thus far: training, coupons, input distribution
 Monitoring and household survey to follow

10. Some IE Challenges
 Practicality of and approaches to attribution of
cause and effect for an R4D program
 Selection of action sites and/or subjects
 Conflicting incentives
 Attribution with small N (action sites, beneficiary
households) – generalizability of results
 Impact of a “bundle of interventions”

11. Amesegnalehu!
Thank you!

12. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net