This is Litha Magingxa from the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa where I am responsible for overseeing the package of work that analyses and packages outputs from bio-physical agricultural research for the different stakeholders including impact assessment. I am joining this fascinating discussion rather late. I agree fully with the points raised by Silvia Andrea Perez (Message 57). To be able to tell a comprehensive story, it is necessary to develop into the project plan, a system for constantly tracking and documenting change in a determined set of variables or areas. This is crucial because change does not only take place at the end of the project but is a gradual and incremental process during the implementation phase. While we are all aware that for certain variables, it may not be worthwhile to monitor in a short space of time, there are certain variables that can show us the progressive impacts and sometimes, this is what is necessary to demonstrate to research funders that the intervention holds promise and more resources can be provided for further investment. Litha Magingxa Group Executive: Agri-Economics & Capacity Development Agricultural research Council P.O. Box 8783 Pretoria 0001, South Africa e-mail: MagingxaL (at) arc.agric.za [To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/217706/. See the searchable message archive 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