CIFOR is committed to research for change – not simply for knowledge. Through an integrated planning, monitoring and learning strategy, our Research to Impact (RTI) team aims to ensure all research, engagement and capacity-strengthening efforts lead to tangible development impacts, particularly in relation to the CGIAR’s Strategic Results Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2019, the RTI team continued to help research teams ground their projects on strong theories of change and use monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to test underlying hypotheses and generate data that support project management. The RTI team has designed and implemented M&E components of large projects such as FORETS, Governing Multifunctional Landscapes, and Sustainable Wildlife Management, to undertake a series of impact monitoring activities, generate learning and demonstrate results.

In addition, CIFOR has gained extensive knowledge on factors that influence and contribute to decision- making through a series of outcome evaluations across thematic programs and individual projects. This work has demonstrated that a combination of co-producing research, extensive engagement of knowledge users across the research cycle, and targeted communications with key decision makers is effective in achieving ownership and use of information in decision making. Similar evaluations are ongoing, using different approaches, to help understand further how research influences policies and practices – and why – in different contexts.