Learning is at the heart of AgResults

This assessment by External Evaluator Abt Associates reflects the experience of competitors in the Brucellosis Vaccine Challenge Project from mid-2018 to mid-2019. Most competitors reported that the competition had helped advance their B. melitensis vaccine R&D. However, many of them anticipated challenges completing the safety and efficacy trials due to resource constraints.

This presentation from the 2019 Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL) Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (MSP) meeting introduces AgResults' framework, which uses prize competitions to encourage the private sector to overcome market challenges. The World Bank and AgResults Secretariat share lessons from designing and implementing competitions to strengthen livestock health and productivity: a global Brucellosis vaccine competition, a vaccine competition to address Foot and Mouth Disease in Eastern Africa, and a Tanzania-based competition to boost dairy productivity.

The AgResults Prize Concept Review Framework assesses concepts for validity as a prize competition. The framework comprises four key questions on the (a) market failure, (b) missions impact, (c) prize design, and (d) enabling environment. 

This Lessons Learned article explores the experience of AgResults during the Brucellosis Challenge design, launch, and Year 1 implementation phases.

The evaluationdesign for the Brucellosis Vaccine Challenge Project lays out the approach to assessing the project's influence in stimulating the development of an improved Brucella melitensis vaccine. Evaluators used a qualitative assessment and counterfactual disease study to examine technology development and used cost-effectiveness simulations as well.