Learning is at the heart of AgResults

This brief, the fifth and final in the series, provides an overview of the fifth phase of AgResults’ approach to Pay-for-Results prize competition design. It explains how program designers can develop a thorough verification plan to evaluate competitors’ results and determine prize payments. It also summarizes the activities involved in project management of a prize competition.

This brief, the fourth in a series of five, provides an overview of the fourth phase of AgResults’ approach to Pay-for-Results prize competition design. It explains how program designers can determine the size of the prize purse to effectively drive participation and innovation without overpaying for results.

This brief, the third in a series of five, provides an overview of the third phase of AgResults’ approach to Pay-for-Results prize competition design. It explains how program designers can create the set of parameters and rules that determines who competes, how to win the prize(s), and the implementation timeline.

This brief, the second in a series of five, provides an overview of the second phase of AgResults’ approach to Pay-for-Results prize competition design. It explains how program designers conduct deeper research on relevant market systems to articulate a Theory of Change for the competition and to reasonably estimate the project’s impacts.

The first in a series of five, this brief provides an overview of concept sourcing, the first phase of AgResults’ Pay-for-Results prize competition design process. It shows how program designers begin the process by brainstorming and assessing potential development challenges to see if a prize competition is best suited to address the identified problem.

This report by External Evaluator Abt Associates summarizes independent evaluation findings from competitions in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia and offers guidance for future prize sponsors. It provides evidence that Pay-for-Results (PfR) competitions can spur development of markets for technologies benefitting smallholder farmers. It also offers guidance on how to determine whether PfR is an appropriate design option and how to maximize farmer benefits.

This toolkit is a practical guide for agricultural development practitioners who are interested in using Pay-for-Results prize competitions to stimulate new markets for agricultural technologies and engage the private sector for scale-up. It draws upon the experience of AgResults, which has designed and implemented prize competitions around the world since 2013.

Since 2013, AgResults has been designing and implementing agricultural prize competitions to encourage the private sector to "solve" a market failure and work toward a defined goal to receive a monetary award. In this cross-cutting learning document, AgResults presents 12 key takeaways based on its experience with prize concept design and sourcing; launch and marketing; and running a prize competition.

This DFID Chief Economist Seminar Series presentation from February 2020 summarizes External Evaluator Abt Associates' findings about the use of “pull mechanisms” or “prize competitions” to develop markets that provide innovative agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers. Findings suggest that pull mechanisms can create markets as long as the binding constraints inhibiting market development are within the manageable interest of the companies competing for the prize.

Despite the nutritional and environmental benefits of legumes, Ugandan seed companies have not prioritized legume seed production due to fluctuations in demand, low profitability, and limited access to working capital. The AgResults Uganda Legume Seed Challenge Project, which ran from 2017-2018, used a Pay-for-Results prize competition to encourage Ugandan seed companies to increase the production and adoption of improved higher-quality legume varieties. Despite the project’s early closure due to ongoing seed counterfeiting, low participation in the competition, and challenges of seed quality verification, it still revealed valuable learning around what works and what does not work when designing and implementing a prize competition focused on increasing sales of quality seed.

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 report presents baseline evaluation results for the Uganda Legume Seed Challenge Project, which was terminated early. It includes findings from a survey of 1,800 smallholders, in-depth interviews with a subset of farmers, and seed quality assessment results using seed from 300 farmers who reported using quality seed.

Shifting policies and political objectives prompted AgResults to adjust the original design of the Uganda Improved Legume Seed Challenge Project. This Lessons Learned article explores the reasoning behind these design changes and the insights that emerged.

The Uganda Legume Seed Challenge Project’s evaluation design envisions a performance evaluation using a pre-post design to assess project success in creating a smallholder-inclusive market for quality legume seed. It uses a structure-conduct-performance framework to assess market impact and a baseline-endline comparison of smallholder farmer survey data to understand smallholder benefits.