Program Evaluation of IDRC Sustainable Inclusive Economies
Formative evaluation of IDRC's Sustainable Inclusive Economies program, assessing implementation coherence, research quality, and contribution to outcomes across five years of Strategy 2030.
Background
Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) launched its ten-year Strategy 2030 with five programming areas, including Sustainable Inclusive Economies (SIE), which aims to ensure people in developing countries benefit from more equitable economies with expanded opportunities for women and youth. At the strategy's midpoint, IDRC commissioned a series of five concurrent program evaluations managed by its Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team, each conducted by an independent external team. The SIE evaluation was one of these five. The evaluation served both learning and accountability purposes — providing IDRC management, staff, and grantees with evidence to improve practice for the remaining strategy period, while demonstrating results to the Canadian public and funding partners. The evaluation covered all active SIE programming from April 2020 to March 2025, examining both core strategic dimensions (investing in high-quality research, knowledge sharing, and alliance building) and programmatic outcomes including informed policy, scaled impact, and enhanced Southern voice and leadership in shaping inclusive and low-carbon development pathways.
Approach
A consortium of the Dala Institute, the Institute for Peace and Development (Ghana), and Asuntos del Sur (Argentina) conducted the evaluation using a mixed-methods design structured around three evaluation issues: program implementation coherence, research quality, and contribution to outcomes. For implementation, the team assessed how coherently SIE was being delivered within the Strategy 2030 framework, including sub-strategies on gender equality, knowledge sharing, and private sector engagement, and examined the relevance of research priorities to regional and global demands. Research quality was assessed using IDRC's Research Quality Plus (RQ+) framework across a purposive sample of approximately 20 projects, evaluating scientific rigour, legitimacy, importance, and positioning for use. Outcome assessment drew on contribution analysis and complexity-aware methods to trace SIE's role in achieving immediate and intermediate outcomes along the program's outcome pathway, with particular attention to gender equality and inclusion. Data collection included extensive document review, stakeholder interviews with IDRC staff and grantees across multiple regions, and field visits to IDRC regional offices. The consortium participated in cross-evaluation peer learning exchanges with the four other program evaluation teams, and delivered an inception report, progress report, preliminary findings presentation, and a final evaluation report with an accompanying findings brief.