The impact of our research

The World Agroforestry Centre carries out research to produce five generic-level outputs. These outputs represent a change in:

  • knowledge
  • understanding
  • market strategy
  • capacity or skills
  • technology availability.

The promotion and active dissemination of these outputs to users and user groups is also a vital aspect of our agenda. These generic outputs are structurally organized around four themes which also each represent a high order output. The actual deliverables (tangible outputs) are the lower order outputs produced by individual scientists and research teams within the sub-projects. These are largely nested under our research priorities but can constitute the combined results from several areas, and drive our annual work programme and budget.

The outcomes the Centre seeks to achieve are described for different scales and stakeholders. The higher order research priority outputs are intended to lead to one or more changes in:

  • farmer/community action or attitudes
  • trader behaviour or value-chain function
  • landscape governance and environmental condition
  • institutional behaviour and competencies
  • policy enablement.

Our regional and global teams are the integrators of the inputs (activities) and outputs that lead to the coherency and attainment of our outcomes.

The role of the Centre is to generate required outputs that lead to the desired outcomes that will likely lead to intended impact. We seek to have an impact on livelihood and landscape problems. Determination of informative indicators and baselines that quantify the problems and can be used to attribute and monitor impact of our work is equally a key part of our agenda.