Impact Research

Impact Research

IDH works in many different countries and commodity chains. We work with multiple partners who also play a role in creating change. Moreover, our approaches are varied, dynamic, and evolve over time. This ever-increasing complexity is what makes us unique, but at the same time creates a challenge in evaluating the impact of our work.

As part of our unique theory-based research methodology, we gradually gather impact evidence though in-depth impact research for some of our proofs of concept (POCs). Performing this research for the full quota of our POCs, which numbers over 25, would require too much resources. As such, we selected at least one POC within each impact theme to gather proof on how successful innovations can be designed for businesses and governments to internalize externalities such as deforestation and poverty.

To select these POCs per impact theme, we considered the following criteria: maturity and measurability of the project (to include projects where impacts are likely to be materialized and assessed by 2020), representation (to cover key innovations that IDH is aiming to drive in various sector programs), proportionality (where there is a substantial investment by IDH), and additionality (where investments into the evaluation add unique value).