Millstone, Erik, van Zwanenberg, Patrick and Marshall, Fiona (2010) Monitoring and evaluating agricultural science & technology projects: theories, practices and problems. IDS Bulletin, 41 (6). pp. 75-87. ISSN 0265-5012

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Abstract

Recently there has been a realisation that agriculture, and in particular the viability and sustainability of smallholder farming, can be a key to poverty reduction in developing countries. This article reviews approaches to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of scientific and technological innovation projects and examines how approaches to M&E can be modified or enhanced to optimise positive impacts on those intended recipients. This article concludes that innovations are most successful when they are accomplished within ‘innovation systems’; that advantage should be taken of opportunities to involve intended recipients of the innovation at early up-stream and mid-stream stages of projects to assess the accuracy and adequacy of theories of change; that the types of tools and methods used in carrying out M&E influence the types of data obtained; and that the cultures of research and development institutions may inhibit reciprocal communications but the development of intermediaries between institutions and farmers could make a useful difference.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Business, Management and Economics > SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit
Subjects:	H Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Users 7386 not found.
Date Deposited:	28 Apr 2014 08:51
Last Modified:	07 Mar 2017 03:43
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48292

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