A qualitative assessment of the research capacity and community impacts of three randomly selected ACIAR-sponsored projects

Summary

This small study follows from an earlier study (Mauldon 1998) that examined the external reviews of 111 ACIAR-sponsored large bilateral projects completed between 1990 and 1997. That study provided an overview of the effectiveness of the projects in terms of three criteria: their success in meeting project objectives (technical success); their impact on research capacity; and their community impact generally (on farmers, consumers, the environment).
In that earlier study, the assessment of technical success was satisfactorily addressed, as most reviews were able to address this aspect of the projects directly and with considerable thoroughness. The assessment of impact on research capacity was problematic, as the reviewers' terms of reference generally did not relate as directly to this outcome as they did to technical success. The assessment of community impact generally was most problematic of all, since reviewers' comments lacked focus on the implementation of project outcomes, and it was usually too early to assess implementation issues. In the light of these problems, this report contains a more searching, but still qualitative, assessment of the magnitude and nature of: the impact on research capacity; and the community impact generally (on farmers, consumers, the environment of three projects, randomly selected from eighteen ACIAR-sponsored large, bilateral projects completed in 1994. The next section of the report summarises the findings of the study, while the final section provides some background information about the projects.