Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Theory-Based Evaluation of Inclusive Business Programmes

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dc.creator Ton, Giel
dc.creator Vellema, Sietze
dc.date 2022-02-01T16:09:22Z
dc.date 2022-02-01T16:09:22Z
dc.date 2022-02-01
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-26T08:52:25Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-26T08:52:25Z
dc.identifier Ton, G. and Vellema, S. (Eds) Theory-Based Evaluation of Inclusive Business Programmes, IDS Bulletin 53.1, Brighton: IDS
dc.identifier https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17109
dc.identifier Rural Futures
dc.identifier 10.19088/1968-2022.100
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/198917
dc.description Increasingly, development funding is directed to programmes aiming to make market systems more favourable for smallholders and low-income consumers of food. The development outcomes of these programmes are not self-evident. Programmes operate in dynamic markets full of uncertainties and surprises and depend on many other factors not under their control. Assessing whether a programme indeed contributed to development outcomes is challenging. Building on real-world experiences with theory-based evaluation in inclusive business programmes, this IDS Bulletin discusses approaches and methods for meaningful impact evaluation. It examines how these evaluations provided information that made programmes accountable to the donors while also helping the implementing agencies to learn and adapt their programmes. In this IDS Bulletin, the authors discuss the experiences of practitioners and academics in finding doable and creative ways to conduct impact evaluations of inclusive business programmes in the domain of food and agriculture. Inclusive business programmes that work in the area of food and agriculture aim to change current business practices of small and medium enterprises in a way that these include smallholders as producers or target poor consumers as consumers. The examples show a convergence in methodological approaches, with ‘What works for whom under what conditions’ as the key learning question. All use a combination of methods that complement and build upon each other. However, smart data collection and sharp analysis and synthesis alone are not enough. The evaluation process and outputs also need to be informative for the stakeholders involved. More interaction and sense-making between implementers and evaluators are needed. All experiences presented in this IDS Bulletin acknowledge that it is not easy to find ways to make learning useful for evaluation commissioners and implementing agencies. Under the right conditions, the presented approaches and tools might work and accelerate the learning loops for adaptive management. Crucially, three conditions appear as necessary for a good theory-based evaluation: 1. having interested ‘listeners’ as the audience of the evaluation; 2. applying rigour in anticipating and addressing validity threats to the conclusions; 3. sufficient resources for an appropriate mix of methods.
dc.language en
dc.publisher Institute of Development Studies
dc.relation IDS Bulletin;53.1
dc.rights This is an Open Access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited, any modifications or adaptations are indicated, and the work is not used for commercial purposes. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.rights Institute of Development Studies
dc.subject Development Policy
dc.title Theory-Based Evaluation of Inclusive Business Programmes
dc.type Article


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