Draft Observations on the Impact Presentations

Comments by Jock Andersen of the World Bank Operations Evaluation Department on impact assessment presentations at International Centers Week, October 1997. The presentations were made by the CGIAR Impact Assessment and Evaluation Group (IAEG) - its first annual report- and by the sixteen CGIAR centers on the impact of their research and activities, and methods used in making the assessment.Andersen was a member of the team responsible for the CGIAR impact study of 1984-86. He applied the standards of the World Bank OED to the present reports. His comments addressed the quality and constructiveness of the IAEG studies, the varying capacity of different centers to conduct such self-assessments, and the place of impact assessment in their activities and organizational cultures