Member's Documents
Corporate-level evaluation on IFAD’s support to innovations for inclusive and sustainable smallholder agriculture
Published by: International Fund for Agricultural Development, Independent Office of Evaluation
SDGs: SDG 1 - No Poverty, SDG 2 - Zero Hunger, SDG 5 - Gender Equality, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities, SDG 15 - Life on Land
The evaluation found that innovations are indeed key in boosting the performance of agrifood systems. IFAD-supported innovations are generally institutional or organizational in nature, and usually originate with IFAD or project staff, based on ideas or solutions already proven in a different country or context. As for developing genuinely novel ideas or processes (especially those addressing smallholder agriculture challenges), loan investment projects have little appetite to provide support in this respect, given the risk potentially associated with such innovations; grants are thus especially useful in promoting them.
Moving forward, the evaluation notes that “bundling” together different innovations to address the diverse challenges across the agrifood system is more likely to lead to transformative change, that can be sustained and scaled up. To enhance the bundling of innovations for transformative change, the evaluation recommends (among other things) setting corporate goals for IFAD’s innovation agenda and implementing an operational framework aligned with these goals, as well as fostering the innovation culture within the Fund.
