The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the CGIAR Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) commissioned and recently released an ex-post impact assessment review of the IFPRI’s social protection research program for the period 2000–2012. Completed by the group of experts from TANGO International, the report and accompanying brief are now available online and can be useful for researchers, partners and stakeholders interested in social protection research and programs in developing countries.
IFPRI’s research program on social protection seeks to understand the impact pathways of alternative interventions for building human capital and reducing poverty, and how this can contribute to innovative policy and program design that enhances the quality, reach, and impacts of such interventions in the short- and long-term. PIM supports this work through its Flagship 4: Improved Social Protection for Vulnerable Populations.
This assessment includes an extensive review of public goods produced by the program and stakeholder perceptions of those public goods, as well as case studies and policy changes that resulted from this research between 2000 and 2012. Over 40 interviews were conducted with national stakeholders, donors, IFPRI staff, government officials, and individuals who participated in or had knowledge of IFPRI’s activities regarding social protection during this timeframe.
Main findings
Between 2000 and 2012, IFPRI’s social protection research activities led to over 350 publications—journal articles, policy briefs, reports, discussion papers, etc., many of which are published in good quality journals and/or are highly cited. Together they provided relevant, high-quality, evidence-based research on a wide range of topics related to social protection broadly and contributed greatly to the body of knowledge regarding social protection and social safety nets, and particularly of conditional cash transfers (CCT). By mid-decade, the program was considered by stakeholders to have contributed to a global “evaluation culture” in regard to social-protection and safety-net programming. Additionally, stakeholders felt that IFPRI’s research activities influenced government policies in a number of countries:
Featured image: Jefferson Rudy/Agência Senado, Flickr