Project development, investment design, and resource mobilization
Consulting on livestock investment design: concept notes, results frameworks, resource mobilization strategies, and implementation roadmaps.
Read moreMonitoring, evaluation, learning, and portfolio assessment
Livestock programme evaluation and portfolio assessment.
Livestock Futures conducts independent evaluations of livestock programmes, research investments, and portfolios, combining recognised evaluation criteria with field evidence and sector knowledge.
Evaluation is worth commissioning when it can change a decision. That requires two things which are frequently absent: an evaluator who understands the sector well enough to interpret what they are seeing, and a willingness to report findings that are inconvenient.
Livestock programmes are particularly easy to evaluate badly. Outcomes are slow, attribution is genuinely difficult in systems where animals move and change hands, and the most accessible indicators - workshops delivered, animals treated - measure activity rather than effect.
Programme and portfolio evaluation
Evaluations are structured around recognised criteria, most often the OECD-DAC set of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. The criteria are a scaffold rather than a substitute for judgement; the value comes from applying them to a sector where the evaluator can tell a real constraint from a reported one.
Sustainability is where livestock programmes most often come apart, and where evaluation is most useful. A great deal of what looks successful at closure depends on project-funded inputs, and a specific, evidenced answer about what survives without them is usually the most valuable finding in the report.
- Programme evaluations using OECD-DAC criteria
- Mid-term reviews and end-of-programme evaluations
- Case-study and deep-dive evaluations
- Evaluation design, questionnaire development, and sampling
- Fieldwork, analysis, and reporting
Research portfolio and quality assessment
Research-for-development portfolios need a different lens. Scientific quality and development relevance are distinct questions, and a portfolio can perform strongly on one while failing on the other.
Assessment work here draws on Quality of Science and QoR4D frameworks, alongside comparative advantage analysis for institutions deciding what they should stop doing as much as what they should start.
- Quality of Science and QoR4D portfolio evaluations
- Research-for-development portfolio assessment
- Comparative advantage assessment
- Strategic learning products and synthesis
- Monitoring system design and indicator review
Who this is for
Development partners and financing institutions commissioning independent evaluation; research organisations and CGIAR-affiliated programmes; government agencies reviewing national livestock programmes; and foundations assessing portfolio performance.
Common questions
Questions we are asked about this work
What evaluation criteria do you work with?
Most commonly the OECD-DAC criteria. For research portfolios, Quality of Science and QoR4D frameworks are used alongside them. Where a commissioner has its own framework, the evaluation is structured to it.
Can you handle fieldwork in remote livestock systems?
Yes. Fieldwork in pastoral and extensive systems requires sampling designs that account for mobility and seasonality, and enumeration approaches suited to low-literacy contexts. Designing for those conditions from the start avoids data that cannot be interpreted afterwards.
Will the evaluation say what is not working?
Yes. An evaluation that only confirms what the commissioner already believes has no value. Findings are evidenced and proportionate, and uncomfortable ones are reported plainly.
Related services
Often scoped alongside this work
Capacity development and knowledge systems
Training design and institutional capacity development for veterinary services, field teams, and public agencies, plus technical reports and policy briefs.
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