The Visayas State University (VSU) represented by Dr. Maria Juliet C. Ceniza, the Vice President for Research, Extension, and Innovation, expressed its full support for the conduct of an impact assessment study of the completed project entitled ”Enhanced profitability of selected vegetable value chains in the Southern Philippines and Australia Program“ that was funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The impact assessment will be handled by Alinea International, a third-party agency that is an expert in conducting impact assessments as commissioned by ACIAR.
Ms. Bethany Davies, Research Manager-Portfolio Planning and Impact Evaluation of ACIAR, explained clearly to the VSU researchers their scoping mission for the preparation for the conduct of an impact assessment. Recently, ACIAR entered into an agreement with a third party headed by Ms. Julie Delfonce, the Principal Consultant for Livelihood Portfolio, Alinea International, who is tasked to design a workable and suitable impact assessment tool that can be used to look back on the past project which had significant programmatic and place-based investments.
During the consultation, Dr. Zenaida Gonzaga, Dr. Anabella Tulin, Dr. Salome Bulayog, and Dr. Lucia Borines, the project leaders of the above-mentioned ACIAR project, enumerated the tangible impacts that the project brought to the community and to the lives of the people who were involved in the said project. The results that were presented helped Ms. Julie understands the salient parts of the project and eventually guides her to identify what to focus on in the assessment.
This project was implemented over a period of more than 10 years which focused on four key areas, namely: (1) analysis of technical constraints to selected vegetable production systems; (2) development and extension of the intervention to address constraints (e.g., integrated disease management, protected cropping); (3) improved and sustainable value chains; and (4) understanding the economic impacts of new technologies and policy constraints.
“This is a very timely initiative, especially that during accreditation and ISO audit, the evaluators are always asking for data from an impact assessment study of completed projects. VSU is lucky enough to partner with ACIAR because your support still continued even up to the conduct of the impact assessment study”, Dr. Ceniza mentioned.
Together with the scoping mission team are Ms. Hazel Aniceto, Country Manager, ACIAR Philippines; Ms. Mara Faylon, Assistant Country Manager, ACIAR Philippines; and Matt Armstrong, Research Officer, Portfolio and Impact Evaluation, ACIAR.
The impact assessment will soon to commence in July 2023. #EYBanoc