Factors Affecting Success in International Collaborative Forestry Research Projects

Abstract

Collaborative research projects are an important component of research for development programs globally, but there is little consensus regarding what constitutes project ‘success’, and little understanding of factors that contribute to or constrain success. This thesis explores the principle research question: What constitutes success, and what factors influence it, in forestry research for development projects? In doing so, it presents a new approach for evaluating the relative success of projects, and applies it to case studies of forestry research for development projects implemented by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in Vietnam, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG).

While ACIAR evaluates individual projects regularly, it has no methodology to compare levels of success across large numbers of projects. The first part of the thesis reviews ACIAR’s forestry program and evaluation methodologies, and presents a new methodology for evaluating the relative success of research projects using existing project records. It places projects into four categories of success based on scores for achievements and impacts, which aids understanding of differential success between projects.

In the second part of the thesis, this methodology is applied to country-based case studies in Vietnam, Indonesia and PNG. Ten completed ACIAR forestry projects were evaluated in each country to identify relative success. There was considerable variation in the relative success of the projects, in terms of both achievements and impacts. Interviews with Australian and partner country project participants were then used to investigate the factors that affected project success. The number of project success factors identified varied, with 22, 30, and 37 factors identified in Vietnam, Indonesia and PNG respectively. In each country the frequency of identification of these factors and their apparent relationships with the relative success evaluation scores of selected projects was investigated.

The third part of the thesis synthesised results from the three country case studies, and considered how this knowledge could be used by ACIAR and other international development agencies. Overall, ACIAR’s forestry programs in Vietnam and Indonesia have been more successful than its program in PNG. Project success had little relation to research theme, and successor projects were not necessarily more successful than their precursors. Of the 37 success factors identified, seven were considered to be beyond the control of a project, and a further 15 factors would only apply in some situations. The remaining 15 factors, which relate to aspects of project design and implementation, and for which there appear to be relationships with the evaluated level of project success, are therefore considered to be ‘key success factors’.

This research has made two key contributions to understanding how to improve research for development projects. The first is a low-cost method for evaluating relative success between projects. The second is the identification of 15 widely applicable success factors that are subject to decisions made by research program managers and project teams. These insights will help inform research for development funders and managers about factors influencing, and strategies for enhancing, project success. Show more