Dataset used to reproduce the main results.

As resource envelopes to fund research for development activities become tighter, demonstrating value for money is key. This is difficult for various reasons, chief among these being the failure to embed evaluation frameworks in project design. The multiplicity of scaling partners and their interests, and levels of involvement makes it even more complicated to ensure consistent monitoring and evaluation. We demonstrate how to estimate the reach in research for development projects using a population-based computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) survey methodology that is statistically representative at the desired administrative unit level. This approach was applied to the CGIAR Research Initiative – Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi) implemented with several scaling partners across 12 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. The assessment focused on five of the 12 target countries covered in phase one of implementation. The goal of the assessment was to measure the extent of reach and use of agronomic, mechanization, livestock, and nutrition innovations promoted under Ukama Ustawi, and to assess the extent to which the Initiative reached its intended targets. The data comes from 6,445 randomly sampled rural individuals across 27 districts in the five countries. Approximately 1.05 million people were aware of Ukama Ustawi activities, with Kenya and Zambia showing the highest awareness at 16%. Overall, 164,363 people benefited from various innovations promoted by Ukama Ustawi as of September 2024, about 3 years from the beginning of the project. Of these, 135,767 people were direct beneficiaries in areas where specific interventions were implemented. The rest benefited from spillover effects. About 52% of the beneficiaries were female and 56% were youth aged 18–35 years. Innovation use was highest for minimum tillage and post-harvest mechanization in Zimbabwe, followed by agronomic and mechanization options in Malawi. The benefit-reach ratio was highest in Zimbabwe at 61%, followed by Malawi at 31%. This means that Ukama Ustawi activities were most effective at converting reach to beneficiaries in Zimbabwe and Malawi, partly because implementation was layered on past similar interventions. While our results are comparable to more traditional case studies, our survey approach is nearly fourfold cheaper, demonstrating cost-effectiveness and efficiency. We discuss project design and implementation issues necessary to facilitate this kind of evaluation in international development projects.