Accounting for Organizational Results: An evaluation of the International Service for National Agricultural Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article reports on a recent, results-based evaluation carried out to assess the achievements, impacts and constraints of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR), (Mackay et al., 1998). Since ISNAR's mandate is to strengthen national agricultural research organizations (NAROs) in developing countries, the evaluation was designed to assess the results of ISNAR's programs and activities on the capacity and performance of NAROs. These results are defined as “institutional impacts,” in contrast to the longer-term effects of NAROs on agricultural production, economic growth, social welfare and the environment, which may be defined as “production impacts,” “economic impacts,” “social impacts” and “environmental impacts.” There is, relatively speaking, little experience with institutional impact assessment, and for this reason, an assessment framework had to be developed specifically for this evaluation. This article outlines the framework, the evaluation studies carried out, and some of the salient findings. The final section presents some implications of this evaluation for future assessments of institutional impacts.