Page - (000075) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

Box4.1:KeyMessages Overall,RBMcanoffermanyelementsandapproaches tohelpwithstrategic program design, but it needs to be adapted to the specific context of a program, institution, or organization. It requires some enabling conditions and an environment to support anoutcome-focusedR4Dprogram. Key lessons and enablers: • Buy-in from the top, healthy balance between given structures but allowing for creativity in designingprocesses. • Investing in facilitation and process – and bringing the three elements of MEL together is key and requires resources (time andmoney). • Flexible condition, rigid systemtoallowadaptivemanagement and learn- ing (liberating structures). • The ‘three thirds’principle: one third partnerships, ownership andbuy-in externally from partners, one third capacity enhancement at all levels internally and externally, andone third cutting-edge science. • Systemsupport–buildinganonlineplatformandworking towardsaone- stop-shop (database). 4.2 Background CGIAR is a global agricultural research partnership for a food secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 research centers with 10,000 scientists working in 96countries andahostofpartners innationaland regional research institutes, civil societyorganizations, academia,developmentorganizations, and theprivate sector (CGIAR2015a). Itsworkcontributes to theglobal effort to tackle poverty, hunger andmajor nutritional imbalances, and environmental degradation.The15CGIAR Centers have different foci and operate semi-autonomously in pursuing their specific research agendas, ranging from promoting the productivity of specific crops, livestock, and fish commodities to production systems in specific agro- ecologies and research on policies natural resource management (Raitzer and Kelly 2008). CGIARwas formed in1971 to foster technical solutions toagricultural produc- tivity constraints affecting developing countries (Renkow and Byerlee 2010). Research tended to focus on creating outputs, was often technology focused and supply driven; successwasmeasuredbypeer-reviewedpublications, citations and scienceproducts.Criticismhasbeenmountingover the last decades, as the limita- tions of the output deliverymodel became evident: outputs do not automatically translate into impact. It was often assumed that communication and development specialists would repackage research findings after the researcher produced them and that farmers would realize the value of new technologies and happily adopt 56 T.Schuetz et al.