Promising agricultural innovations often struggle without supportive ecosystems for adoption. This case study examined the socio-technical factors influencing the adoption of biofortified mustard (BFM) among women farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India, promoting nutrition-focused and gender-responsive agriculture.

The study revealed that Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) played a crucial role in empowering women and fostering collaboration with research institutions and government agencies. Positive outcomes demonstrated BFM’s adaptability and potential to enhance resilience against climate and resource challenges. However, the absence of strong market linkages, infrastructure, and policy support limited scaling, highlighting the need for an enabling environment.

Endline Evaluation of the Project- Scaling WaterCredit for Safe Water Access and the Dignity of a Toilet among the Poor

The endline evaluation of the program aims to ascertain the impact of the program at the community level, partner level, and systemic level. It assesses the impact of the WaterCredit program on the policy and regulatory ecosystem, product and service viability, consumer awareness, satisfaction & empowerment, outreach for product uptake, usage and adoption. Key research areas for the evaluation were assessing grant performance, developing causal linkages and attribution for water.org interventions, estimate heterogeneity of client level impact, estimate partner level impact and sectoral level impact.

—Duration: 2019- 20

—Location: India, Indonesia

—Client: : Water.org

Baseline Study of the Project- Creating Healthier and Happier Homes in India and Indonesia with Access to Water and Sanitation

The baseline study aims to understand the socio-economic status of prospective borrowers of WaterCredit. It aims to establish a baseline to assess the impact of the WaterCredit program on the policy and regulatory ecosystem, product and service viability, consumer awareness, satisfaction & empowerment, outreach for product uptake, usage and adoption by the low-income households across India and Indonesia.

—Duration: 2020- 21

—Location: India, Indonesia

—Client: : Water.org

Strengthening the Role of Women Leaders in Promoting Peace and Reconciliation

This rapid needs assessment will generate baseline information for the program. The assessment methodology will draw from WAGE’s “Women’s Economic Empowerment Assessment Tool” and other relevant methodologies, and will unravel the current status of women’s participation in economic activities, understanding women’s needs, constraints and challenges in accessing financial services and participating in economic activities. It further explores the extent to which gender and social norms limit women’s participation in economic activities, and ability to benefit from those economic activities.

―Duration: 2020- Ongoing
—Location: Sri Lanka
—Client: : WAGE/Search
Impact Evaluation of Womenlink Phase III in India

The project aims to build financial capability of 40,000 women through provision of training and goal-based savings product. It also leverages gender dialogues for Women Economic Empowerment (WEE). The evaluation objective of the project is to assess uptake, adoption and usage of goal-based savings project and assess their progress for WEE.

—Duration: 2020- 21
—Location: Maharastra
—Client: : Wells Fargo

Impact Evaluation of Women Economic Empowerment in India

The project works on two overarching objectives: Create self-employment opportunities for young women as female Business Correspondents and create social impact through the realization of entitlements and adoption of financial and livelihood services by low income populations leading to financial security and well- being. The evaluation objectives for the project are assessing financial sustainability of women business correspondent network and assessing socio-economic barriers women faces for being self-employed.

—Duration: 2020-21
—Location: Maharashtra
—Client: : GF-USA

Monitoring and evaluation of Cherie Blair Foundation’s WECAN project

CBF is supporting Dhritti to build capacities of women entrepreneurs in urban areas to build their confidence levels and empower business decision making. CISP is responsible for creating and implementing  the Theory of Change, Indicator metrics and evaluation strategy.

—Duration: 2017

—Location: Delhi, Uttarakhand, UP, Chandigarh, Rajasthan

—Client: : Cherie Blair Foundation; Dhritti Foundation

AgriPath– Empowering smallholder farmers’ transition to sustainable agriculture through effective and efficient digital pathways

AGRIPATH aims to bring sustainable agriculture to scale, by providing farmers and extension services with tailored digital solutions focused on sustainable agricultural practices, female and male smallholders are supported in increasing their agricultural productivity, income, and climate resilience through the uptake of sustainable farming practices. Project identifies levers for enhancing DAS adoption, with specific attention to social norms, the role of communities and agricultural extension agents. It aims at contextualizing the farmbetter app and provides tailor-made advice on sustainable agriculture to thousands of smallholder farmers and agricultural extension agents. It assesses and compares benefits of agent-based, self-service, and hybrid DAS models for users’ livelihoods, as well as their potential to support transformation towards sustainable agriculture.

—Duration: 2021- 26
—Location: India, Nepal
—Client: : Consortium: Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), the University of Lausanne, Grameen Foundation USA (Grameen), Grameen Foundation India (GFI), the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), and Farmbetter Ltd (farmbetter)

Final Evaluation: Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme Phase II

The final evaluation of PFIP II leveraged Utility Focused Evaluation and assisted UNCDF and its partners understand the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, likely impact and sustainability of the programme. It aimed to provide evaluative evidence on the contribution of PFIP’s work to financial inclusion in partner countries and to UNCDF’s broader financial inclusion strategy and situated the programme in its broader development cooperation environment.

—Duration: 2019- 20
—Location: Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga and Samoa
—Client: UN Capital Development Fund

Evaluation of HCL Foundation Samuday project

The project aims to improve nutritional status of children under 5 years of age in three blocks of Hardoi district through a 14-day nutritional camp. The evaluation objectives for this project is to assess the level of change in Knowledge, Awareness and Practice along with change in nutritional parameters (height and weight) of U5 children.

—Duration: 2020- 21
—Location: India- Uttar Pradesh (Hardoi)
—Client: HCL Foundation