IMPACT-L Archives

Moderated conference on impact assessment of agricultural research: May 2014

Impact-L@LISTSERV.FAO.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show HTML Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Reply To:
Date:
Thu, 29 May 2014 09:57:18 +0200
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (27 lines)
I am Hailemichael Taye again. This is a response to the comment given by Daniel Suryadarma (Message 86) after my email on attribution vs contribution in impact evaluation (Message 84).

Let me clarify some issues first. I have never attempted to compare the two approaches in general terms and concluded one is always best over the other. What I was repeatedly saying is the impact evaluation (IE) approach (contribution vs attribution) to be selected should consider the characteristics of the intervention. Second, I only was questioning the appropriateness of ''attribution'' for complex and dynamic interventions and never criticized any of the approaches in terms of internal or external validity. 

Coming back to the debate stuff,  yes there are a lot of debates on various issues in IE such as qualitative vs quantitative methods (there are also proponents of mixed method approaches), attribution vs contribution, etc. Let's put the theoretical debate on "attribution vs contribution'' aside as it will continue among scholars based on their professional inclination. Personally, I don't buy in such debate because I believe that each approach will have its own strengths and weaknesses and the best bet is to use each approach when it is appropriate. I have raised the issue of attribution and contribution not to drag in to this famous debate. It is only because of the inherent characteristics of agricultural research and extension (complexity and dynamism). Most agree that attribution is not always possible and contribution analysis would be appropriate when the intervention is complex and dynamic. As I have clearly put in Message 84, attribution analysis is nice but not always possible. 

So, the debate should be whether contribution analysis could be used for impact evaluation of agricultural research and extension programs. I would be happy to read ideas on how attribution analysis could be used to measure impact of interventions in dynamic and complex settings using linear models. For example, an agricultural research intervention could develop an intervention (say improved variety and its complementary practices) but extension workers and farmers could modify or combine it with other innovations (fertilizer rate, spacing, planting date etc.) from other sources and could improve their yield. Sometimes, the combination of the innovation could change from year to year using various sources. How can increased yield be attributed merely to the improved variety from the research program? How can one disentangle the impact of research from extension since extension and farmers also could have a role not only in dissemination but also in the research process as they could modify part of the innovation? What I am saying is that one cannot attribute yield increase to research output merely because of continuous modification and combination of the innovation, other sources of innovation, the role of extension and farmers (and other actors) in the research process etc. But, definitely, one can logically analyze the contribution of the research, extension, and other actors who have contributed to increased yield. 

Hailemichael Taye
Results Based Monitoring and Evaluation Expert 
Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) 
International Livestock Research Institute 
Box 5689, 
Addis Ababa, 
Ethiopia 
www.ilri.org
Tel: +251 11 617 2417
Email: h.taye (at) cgiar.org
Skype: hailaat1 

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] The last day for sending messages to the conference is 1 June. The searchable message archive is at https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=Impact-L ].

########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the Impact-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=Impact-L&A=1

ATOM RSS1 RSS2