The direct costs of a CGIAR review (i.e., the cost of the panel) is, on the average, $ 300 thousand per center. The indirect costs of organizing the review (i.e., additional costs incurred by the Secretariats and the center, including staff time) are roughly the same amount. (However, the relative burden of the reviews on the budget of the smaller centers is larger, because direct costs tend to be about the same across centers.) As CGIAR reviews are conducted every five years, on the average, the System spends about 0.5 percent of its budget on conducting the external reviews.
The Secretariats are in the process of getting a more precise estimate of these costs. Also, a number of reputable research and/or development institutions have been contacted to obtain comparable data that could be used as benchmarks. Early data suggest that the CGIAR spends less on institutional evaluation than comparable institutions.
