Evaluation of Danish support to research in agriculture and natural resource management 2006-2011.
Evaluation of Danish support to research in agriculture and natural resource management 2006-2011. NCG was subcontracted by Orbicon for this assignment.
The purpose of this evaluation is to:
a) assess, document and explain the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency – and where possible sustainability and impact – of Danish support to development research within the thematic areas of agriculture and natural resource management; and
b) provide lessons learned and recommendations which may feed into on-going discussions on how to improve support to development research, and more specifically into the current process of developing an overall strategic framework for support to development research, which is expected to be published in May 2013.
The Evaluation has been limited to support provided for research within agriculture and natural resource management from 2006 to 2011 within the following channels of support:
• The competitive research project grants (FFU)
• The Pilot Research Cooperation Programme
• The research networks relevant to the theme of the evaluation: Danish Water Forum, ReNED (Environment), NETARD (Agriculture), the Poultry Network and DDRN)
• The research centres (institutional framework contracts) at KU-LIFE relevant to the theme of the evaluation: ‘Danish Seed Health Centre’ and ‘Centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning.’
• The BSU initiative
• Minor studies.
The Evaluation has had extensive discussions in Denmark with stakeholders and has also visited two southern partner countries, Tanzania and Burkina Faso, for detailed interactions with stakeholders. Amongst the tools being used for the Evaluation by the Team are individual and focus group interviews, site visits (Tanzania and Burkina Faso), an online survey, desk analysis of reports and documentation as well as stakeholder group consultations through Workshops in Denmark, Tanzania and Burkina Faso.
Lessons learned and recommendations from the evaluation feed into the on-going discussions on how to improve support to development research, and more specifically into the process of developing an overall strategic framework for support to development research.