Understanding What Works: Impact Evaluation for Conservation, Climate and Development

Countries: Global

Partners: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Summary: Understanding the current state of knowledge on the effectiveness of interventions is the key first step in identifying critical evidence gaps which should be prioritised to support future conservation policy, decision-making and financial investment. Investing in impact evaluation aims to systematically identify, review and summarise existing evidence on what works for conservation, climate and development interventions, and to define a clear approach to address identified priority evidence gaps.

Activities

The project has focused on 2 main activities:

  • Updating an existing Evidence Gap Map (EGM) on Land Use Change and Forestry interventions. An EGM identifies and describes the evidence base measuring the effectiveness of programmes against different outcomes.
  • Producing a framework from which an EGM can be created for Climate Change and Biodiversity. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of international frameworks to address the climate change and biodiversity crises that underpin the GCBC. Developing an evidence base on effective interventions to address these crises is critical, and 3ie have looked to develop an EGM framework that will act as the starting point for strategic and coordinated evidence generation and synthesis activities.

 

Transparency and Traceability of Forest Risk Commodities

Countries: Global

Partners: World Resources Institute (WRI), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Summary: The Traceability and Transparency (T&T) research project forms a UK contribution towards the international dialogue on the traceability and transparency of supply chains of internationally traded agricultural commodities including supporting discussions in the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue. During its COP26 Presidency the UK launched the FACT Dialogue, with Indonesia as co-chair. The government-to-government Dialogue brings together the 28 of the largest producers and consumers of Forest Risk Commodities (FRCs), such as palm oil, soya, beef, cocoa and timber, to protect forests and other ecosystems while promoting sustainable trade and development and addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. The T&T research report aims to support growing an understanding of the state of global traceability and transparency systems in order to provide key stakeholders with the understanding they need to promote and guide positive change for people and forests. The T&T project provides a synthesis of the state-of-play regarding T&T of FRCs to enable a more comprehensive and data-driven response that stakeholders from both the FACT Dialogue and the international community can use to make evidence-based decisions in pursuit of our shared goals.

Related links: Traceability and Transparency in Supply Chains for Agricultural and Forest Commodities | World Resources Institute