This is, again, Mario R. Pareja, from Uruguay, continuing to share our experience on the impact evaluation of the National Institute for Agricultural Research in Uruguay (INIA-UY). This message attempts to summarize our experience in evaluating the social impacts of INIA's technologies in 20 years. To do it, I should state that I am quoting from the social impact chapter of our evaluation and so give the proper credit to the sociologist that worked in our team, Dr. Mariela Bianco, Full Professor of the University of Uruguay. Since I am writing on their  behalf, I repeat the credits to the members of the teams that participated in the evaluation (provided at end of message).
 
First, in view of some of the emails recently read I would like to emphasize the definition of impact given by John Ruane in his conference background document, with which I coincide fully: 
"A key component of RBM practices, among others, is the sequential ‘results chain’ or impact pathway, in which INPUTS lead to ACTIVITIES which produce OUTPUTS leading to OUTCOMES which then lead to IMPACTS. Inputs include funds, technical assistance and human and other resources; activities include actions taken or work done; outputs include new products, services and capacities; and outcomes represent the likely or achieved short-term and medium-term effects of the outputs (UNDG, 2011). Impact, instead, refers to the long-term effects. Following the commonly-used OECD-DAC (2010) definition, impact refers to the “Positive and negative, primary and secondary long-term effects produced by a development intervention, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended". These effects can be economic, socio-cultural, institutional, environmental, technological or of other types". 

So, following this definition, and the associated "results chain" that leads to it, an increase in crop yields is not, for us, an impact per se but rather an output or an outcome. The impact should be measured in what sustainable benefits that increased yield will bring to the farmer and his family.

Along this line, at the social impact level, we use the following definition: "The social impact of a technology is the influence that the scientific and technological outcomes have on the quality of life of a population, expressed in economic, social and/or cultural benefits" (Estébanez, 2003). The empirical evidence that allows us to measure changes in social variables and attribute them to the investment in research & development & innovation (R&D&I) is particularly complex. Social phenomena are usually multi or pluri-causal. This may explain why, at an international level we still lack standardized methodologies and indicators to measure the relationships between investments in agricultural R&D&I with social change. 

In our study of the evaluation of INIA-UY, we prioritized three aspects that, due to the Terms of Reference and the purpose of the impact evaluation, we considered relevant. 

(1) The connection - the brokerage - between INIA-UY's decision makers, as well as its staff, and the final users of its products, the producers. We focused on the evaluation of the mechanisms and processes of knowledge exchange, social needs and demand detection and their integration into INIA's programmes as well as the characterization of the main social actors, the stakeholders, and their incidence in promoting scientific and technological changes. These included studies of the integration and functionality of the board of directors as well as the regional advisory boards to each research station, as well as the technical thematic teams. The focus was on research agendas and transfer of the knowledge generated.
 
(2) A second issue was that of the perception of technology adopters in relation to social changes that the technology itself had promoted or brought about. Case studies and thematic public opinion polls were the instruments used and 13 pre-defined indicators were used to measure social change. They fell into the following categories: a) training and employment; b) health; c) income; and d) management and administration (capacity development).

(3) The third issue included in the social impact study was that of the perception of INIA's researchers about the social impacts of their research. In other words, we were attempting to evaluate if the researchers, as well as the institution as a whole, were conscious of the importance of ex-ante, as well as follow up (monitoring) of the social changes that the technologies they released were promoting, if any, in the target populations. The instruments used in this section were personal interviews as well as electronic consultations to all INIA's staff researchers, and a review of decisions made by the Board during the past 20 years.

Mario R. Pareja
Ingeniero Agrónomo, M.S., Ph.D.
independent consultant 
Paraje El Colorado, Canelones,
Uruguay 
Telephone: 598-2-3654394 or 598-98372634
e-mail: parejamr (at) gmail.com

Credits: ADVISORY BOARD: Coordinator: Dr. Derek Byerlee; Members: Ing. Agr. Álvaro Lapido, Dr. Enrique Alarcón, Dr. Julian Alston, Dr. Manuel Otero. NATIONAL FIELD TEAM: Coordinator and Leader of the Institutional Component: Dr. Mario Pareja, Leader of the Economic Component: M.Sc. José Bervejillo; Leader of the Social Component : Dra. Mariela Bianco; Leaders of the Environmental Component: Ings. Agrs. Alicia Torres and Aracely Ruiz; Assistant to the Institutional Component: Lic. Sandra Gerpe; Administrative Assistant to the Project: Jimena Porley. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FROM IICA: Ing. Agr. Santiago Cayota.  
Reference for this evaluation is: M. Pareja; J. Bervejillo; M. Bianco; A. Ruíz y A. Torres. 2011. Evaluación de los impactos económicos, sociales, ambientales e institucionales de 20 años de inversión en investigación e innovación agropecuaria por parte del Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA) - Uruguay. Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA).

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