Page - (000073) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

networking and institutional change when generating evidence on climate smart technologiesandpractices.Weconcludewith insightsonhowthe theoryofchange process inCGIARcanbeused toachieve impacts thatbalance thedrive togenerate newknowledge inagricultural researchwith thepriorities andurgencyof theusers andbeneficiaries of these research results. Evaluating the contribution of agricultural research to development has always beenachallenge.Researchalonedoesnot lead to impact,but researchdoesgenerate knowledgewhichactors, includingdevelopmentpartners,canputintousetogenerate developmentoutcomes.InCCAFSwearefindingthatatheoryofchangeapproachto researchprogramdesign, implementationandevaluationishelpingusbridgethegap betweenknowledgegenerationanddevelopment outcomes. Keywords Results-basedmanagement • Impact pathway •Monitoring •Learning and evaluation •Theory of change 4.1 Introduction Global poverty has been reduced over the past 25 years. The developing regions overall sawa42%reduction in the prevalence of undernourished people between 1990–1992and2012–2014 (FAO2015).Despitemajor investmentsof the interna- tionalcommunityinreducingpovertyandfoodinsecurity,anestimated805million peoplewere chronically undernourished in 2012–2014 (FAO2015), almost all of whomlive indevelopingcountries.Thereare large regionaldifferences in termsof the progress that has beenmade against poverty and hunger: in SouthAsia it has been limited, and in sub-Saharan Africa it has actually gone backwards since 1990–1992 (FAO 2015). There is much to be done to reach the targets for 2030 as articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals (UN 2015a). Research for development (R4D) has played a significant role in reducing food insecurity over the last decades andwill continue toplay a critical rolemoving forward. R4D is a set of applied research approaches that aim to directly contribute towards achieving international development targets through innovation. In this, there is awide range of understanding of the concept. In this chapterwe focus on agricultural research for development as operationalized byCGIAR.Theunderly- ing assumption is that research within R4D is done with broader development outcomes in mind, e.g. demand-led prioritization of research, participatory and action research and stakeholder involvement (Harrington andFisher 2014). AgriculturalR4Dhasa longhistory.CGIARwas founded in1971asa response to address global hunger in India, Pakistan and other SouthAsian countries. The adoptionofimprovedagriculturalpracticesandtechnologiesdevelopedbyCGIAR, 54 T.Schuetz et al.