modalities such as grants and loans ; and the maintenance of debt sustainability . A specific case study focused on the evolution of Rwandan sovereign debt . The interaction between traditional donor aid and the composition of sovereign debt was illustrated by using the example of the 2012 aid suspension in Rwanda . This work was done within a policy advisory project for the Belgian Development Cooperation ( BeFinD ) and was also presented at the Belgian Embassy in Kigali . Two cross-cutting themes that remain central to CFD research activities and output are gender , and monitoring and evaluation ( M & E ). One publication dealt with whether and how gender targets and gender working groups contribute to more gender-sensitive budget support . Data from 14 SSA countries was analysed using QCA . The study on M & E in the area of climate change programmes , and two publications dealing with aid for adaptation to climate change indicate the increased importance of climate change considerations in the CFD research agenda . Other contributions focused on the use and influence of M & E , sustainability analysis and M & E capacity-building through the use of National Evaluation Societies ( NES ). The latter topic was also central to the short-term training programme , ‘ Strengthening National Monitoring and Evaluation Capacities and Use : National Evaluation Societies as a Driving Force ’, in which 18 NES members from different regions participated . This nexus between research , training and outreach is key to much CFD research and is one of the ways in which CFD actively stimulates outreach . Close interaction with policymakers and practitioners during training , workshops or consultations shape the CFD research agenda , feed into the research process and subsequently increase the use and influence of research findings . An
Part of the coffee value chain : Tanzanian women sorting coffee © Els Lecoutere exemplary case is IOB ’ s participation in the Belgian Research Group on Financing for Development ( BeFinD ), a consortium of four research centres at three Belgian universities ( Namur , Leuven and Antwerp ) which combine their research experience in the field of financing for development . In the context of this project , there is a close two-way information stream between researchers and policymakers . While policy advice and briefs are provided to the Directorate General for Development Cooperation , at the same time , researchers gain greater access to information and networks . This also holds for the research on domestic dimensions of development cooperation , which actively seeks interaction with policymakers and practitioners . Another example is the evaluability study commissioned by the Office of the Special Evaluator ( finalised in 2016 ), in which intensive exchange with stakeholders – who were variously positioned in the development chain – occurred throughout the process . CFD PhD research also closely interacts with the field of policymakers and practitioners ; one of the BTC projects is , for example , central to a PhD study on ‘ Performancebased finance in the Ugandan health sector ’.
International Markets for the Poor ( IMP )
This research line focuses on the extent to which globalising markets , production and financing chains , and labour movements provide opportunities for successful interventions in less developed countries , particularly for their more vulnerable income groups . Additionally , IMP studies the ways in which public actors can effectively intervene to make these processes more inclusive and better targeted at the more vulnerable . As market formation and dynamics are typically multi-level and multi-actor phenomena , this research line aims to address these global processes and their related public actor interventions , along the entire chain , from the global level down to the local level . One main focus of the research line is on the insertion , upgrading and catch up possibilities in global value chains and their consequences for macro and micro-level ( household ) income , vulnerability and other determinants of wellbeing . In a series of publications , this research group studied the opportunities for insertion , structural transformation and the catch
8 • Annual report 2015