Date Published: 07 November 2023

Applications Closing Date: 30 November 2023

Location: Fully Remote

In today’s rapidly advancing and ever-changing global challenges, the importance of innovative solutions in agriculture cannot be overstated. CGIAR is a leading entity in this domain, dedicated to fostering innovations that offer transformative benefits to smallholder farmers, consumers, and other beneficiaries worldwide.

Although significant progress has been made in documenting the use of innovations, in the past, these arose from bottom-up processes resulting in a fragmented approach to identification of which innovations will be tracked and assessed for their impact. While a new system has been developed for innovation management in CGIAR (Innovation Packages and Scaling Readiness), A systematic approach to identifying and prioritising previously disseminated innovations for continued monitoring and impact assessment is still needed. This would ensure that learning takes place across a range of types of CGIAR innovations and that potentially highly impactful innovations already disseminated are assessed. To fill this gap, this consultancy aims to conduct a detailed analytic study to describe innovations reported as “in use” between 2017-2021, identify which ones are being monitored (or not), and prioritise those for further monitoring. The study will also determine whether there are cases where an impact assessment study would be valuable to complement data on innovation use. This study is an essential step towards reinforcing CGIAR’s efforts towards a One CGIAR where information can inform decisions in alignment with its goal of making a significant difference.

Objective

The primary purpose of this consultancy is to systematically describe the CGIAR innovations reported as “in use” between 2017 and 2021, and then prioritise a subset for further monitoring and/or impact assessment. This will result in a curated list of high-priority innovations for near-term impact assessment and a registry of promising innovations for future consideration. It is also intended to contribute to institutional learning regarding innovation management.

Scope of Work

The appointed consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

1. Data Extraction and Initial Screening
   • Extract a comprehensive dataset of innovations from the CRP database developed between 2017-2021, eliminate duplicates, and identify those reported in multiple years.
   • There are approximately 250 innovations listed as in use (stage 4 in the CRP era reporting system) in the database.
2. Descriptive Analysis

Describe all of the innovations reported at use as of 2021, providing information including the type of innovation, type of user, geographical location of innovation use, and the number of users where available. Further criteria will be defined during the initial stages of the consultancy. The information for this analysis will come largely from the Outcome-Impact Case Reports submitted by CRPs.

3. Selection and Validation of Priority Innovations for Further Tracking and/or Impact Assessment

The initial list of criteria and others determined with the consultant and teams within the PPU (JUM and IPSR teams) that guide the prioritisation exercise of this study. They are:

• Stage of Maturity/Readiness: Preference will be given to innovations already in use.
• Potential Scale of Impact: Innovations with a significant scale and impact potential will be prioritised.
• Time Frame: Focus will be directed towards innovations that likely reached a large number of users and/or produced impacts during 2023-2025.
• Diversity: Efforts will be made to ensure a representation of different types of innovations, including technological, genetic, capacity, and policy innovations.
• Geography: The selection will mirror the geographical distribution of CGIAR’s work and potential impacts.
• Non-duplication: Ensuring non-replication of impact assessment work already conducted by other stakeholders.
• OICR Validation: Confirming the innovation’s suitability for further analysis based on OICR validations.
• Continuation of monitoring: Evaluating the uptake of monitoring of innovations by current initiatives, NGOs, private sectors, and governments where trackable.
• Existing or planned impact assessment or adoption studies
• Review available documentation and Outcome-Impact Case Reports (OICRs)
• Gather additional information from the contact scientists for each selected innovation to ensure relevance and feasibility for continued monitoring and/or high-quality impact assessment.

Then apply the selection criteria to identify a shortlist of innovations for further tracking and/or impact assessment in the near and longer term.

4. Final Deliverable

A report (and supporting database) containing a detailed analysis of the innovations reported to be in use over the period 2017-2021. A prioritised listing of innovations for near-term monitoring of use and/or impact assessment and a register of innovations for consideration for longer-term impact assessments.

Timeline

The report shall be submitted three months after signing of the contract. The consultancy will be for a maximum of 30 working days during that period.

Requirements

The ideal consultant should possess:

1. A proven track record in conducting analytic studies, particularly in agricultural innovations.
2. A deep understanding of CGIAR’s operational landscape and the global agriculture challenges.
3. Expertise in data analysis and synthesis with attention to detail and accuracy.
4. Excellent communication skills and the ability to work with multiple stakeholders.

Interested applicants should submit their CV and a financial proposal demonstrating relevant expertise and experience.

Benefits

CGIAR is committed to fair, safe, and inclusive workplaces. We believe that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to excellence, and is critical for our mission. We offer a multi-cultural, multi-colour, multi-generational, and multi-disciplinary, collegial working environment, with a competitive salary, excellent benefits, and flexible working arrangements. We are consciously creating an inclusive organization that reflects our global character and our commitment to gender equity. We, therefore, encourage applicants from all cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientations, and gender identities.