In developing the logframe, several concepts and phrases were common to descriptions of outputs, purposes, and goals or to indicators. Some of these emerged from the CGIAR's poverty alleviation and resource conservation goals, others from the System's concerns for efficiency. Still others came out of the formal considerations of logframe analysis. It was decided to lay out these generic considerations in one place rather than to repeat them in virtually each description of outputs, purposes, and goals.
The development hypothesis on which this logframe's lines of cause and effect are based is the following: that research on technology and policy will lead to the use of improved methods and inputs, that these will increase productivity, that increased productivity will lead to higher incomes and ultimately to less pressure on natural resources, and that these outcomes will contribute to achieving CGIAR goals. Centre assumptions will vary from output to output and will, ultimately, be a part of the formal description of centre outputs.
It is understood in what follows that the outputs are focused on productivity, resource conservation, and the needs of the poor. Given the System's goals, outputs will be international public goods, often tending to be intermediate goods; importance will be given to gender, especially as it relates to alleviation of poverty among poor, rural women; and sustainability will have its role in improved systems. The outputs from basic research and from much of the germplasm collection and categorization will have a longer pathway to objectives, but are nonetheless targeted, and fit equally well within the logframe. Outputs will usually involve collaborative work with a broad range of partners both from within and outside the CGIAR community and frequently will include participation with farmers. Finally, it is understood that others, e.g., NARS, will develop their work from an array of outputs, only some of those from the CGIAR. However, given that this presentation deals with the CGIAR, outputs for which it is responsible are featured.
As for formal consideration in logframe analysis, given that centre projects will include information on timeframe, estimated magnitude of payoffs, probabilities of success, geography/region of application, and other quantitative measures where relevant, these dimensions - all available from centre project descriptions - could be aggregated across Centre outputs to characterize System performance. At times it will be useful to do so.
At the System's level, some assumptions are made which condition success: adequate and stable funding for the CGIAR System, adequate and stable funding for collaborating NARS, continued commitment of relevant actors at all levels to goal achievement, the existence of viable local institutions for knowledge transfer, relatively stable global/regional/national political and economic conditions. At project level, these assumptions must be elaborated in greater detail and be the objects of monitoring and evaluation.
At a more specific level, and probably varying in their concordance with facts from place to place, are assumptions about producer access to knowledge about improved technology and policy, about the availability of required inputs (e.g. to improved seeds), and about producers' motivation to adopt the technologies to which CGIAR outputs contribute. This last is largely in the hands of research systems, especially NARS. The others are a part of the external environment and will vary from country to country. Centre decision making will be influenced by NARS observations on these issues. At the System level, unless there is solid evidence to the contrary, decision making acts as if there is no reason to select one sector over another or one commodity over another because of differences in access to knowledge or inputs.
Finally, the descriptions that follow frequently refer to users and to products and information being accessible. Users are both direct and ultimate, and range from NARS to farmers and consumers, depending on the hierarchy of ends. Accessible products are those which are available in a timely way and in an appropriate format. They are useable if they take into account the knowledge, resources and motivation of potential users. It is understood that the latter are not static but may be positively influenced by the quality of CGIAR outputs.
