O74 - Livelihood impacts of agroforestry: An integrated systems evaluation from field, household, landscape to policy
2. Individual abstractsQuang Tan Nguyen2, Kai Mausch1, Karl Hughes1
1 World Agroforestry (ICRAF), UN Avenue, Box 30677-00100 Nairobi, Kenya
2 World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Viet Nam Country Office, 13th floor HCMCC Tower, 249 A Thuy Khue Street, Thuy Khue Ward, Tay Ho District, Ha Noi, Viet Nam
Introduction
Research in and on development is under more pressure than ever to show and document resulting impact on the target populations and countries. Donors and concerned government agencies as well as the wider stakeholder landscape expect evidences for the achievements of intended research objectives (e.g. developmental and environmental impacts) as well as the quality and the effectiveness of research. Furthermore, managers of research organizations have realized how lessons learned from assessment can support learning and adaptive management in research projects as well as in the design future research.
Assessing the impacts of an agroforestry (integration of trees into farming systems) project that work at various scales from field through household and landscape to local and country governmental support structures and are embedded in wider CGIAR research programs like Forest, Tree and Agroforestry (FTA) is a challenging task as multiple impact pathways interact and support each other. Additionally, the research undertaken is targeting outcomes from household income, nutrition, gender equity and others, the economic and institutional environment the household is embedded in as well as environmental outcomes like landscape health, climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as the policy level that plays a critical role in facilitating the scaling of identified solutions.
This presentation provides the audience an update of the process as well as the preliminary findings from the application of FTA’s impact evidencing strategy in the context of Vietnam with a special focus on the ‘Agroforestry for Livelihoods’ project which has started in 2011. Various pieces of evidence suggest that the project has generated impacts in terms of adoption of agroforestry management practices, increase in yield for key food staples, poverty alleviation, income diversification, reduction of agricultural-related greenhouse gas emissions, prevention of land degradation and restoration of degraded land. The assessment has started in early 2020 and aims to integrate and solidify quantitative and qualitative evidences that allows for a rigorous assessment of the work undertaken. Findings from the assessment are also expected to contribute to improve learning and experience sharing, as well as the design and management of on-going and future research programs. Most importantly, the experience from Vietnam will contribute to improve impact assessment of complex and integrated programs.