Resources

Information Notes

Introduction

The Biodiversity Challenge Funds have produced a range of reviews and information notes from evaluations of projects and themes that could be useful for future or ongoing projects.

Information notes are the new name for short publications, which provide information to the Darwin Initiative community and beyond.

Information Notes

Building and Applying Evidence Study Reports

These reports are a result of studies and reviews carried out by a range of specialists and consultants on the Biodiversity Challenge Funds (BCFs) including the Darwin Initiative, Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Challenge Fund, and Darwin Plus. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the fund administrator NIRAS, in consultation with wider stakeholders as relevant, are considering all findings and recommendations emerging from these reports in how they manage the BCFs.

BCFs - Application scores vs project performance
BCFs - Review of the BCFs MEL systems: Standard Indicators and reporting
BCFs - Gender Equity and Social Inclusion
BCFs - Evidence use and generation

Fund level evaluations

In September 2020, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), commissioned Ecorys to undertake an evaluation of the three Biodiversity Challenge Funds - Darwin Initiative, Darwin Plus and Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, henceforth collectively referred to as ‘the scheme’.

The scope of this evaluation included all projects since the beginning of the scheme across all countries of operation. The evaluation had the following key objectives: assess the impact of the scheme; identify gaps in logic and draw out key lessons to understand how the scheme could be improved; facilitate clearer communication of the scheme’s key achievements; and make suggestions for establishing effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. The results of this evaluation enabled Defra to improve the quality of the scheme going into the future, as well as showcasing Defra’s contributions to global biodiversity and environmental protection ahead of international conferences.

Reports and deliverables from the evaluation:

Learning Notes

Learning notes are short publications highlighting some of the lessons drawn out of recent evaluations of projects or the wider programme.

Learning Notes Archive

Briefing Papers

There are short updates about a technical area that is intended to help you undertake your work on a Darwin Initiative project. They set out the Darwin Initiative’s position on various issues of relevance to Darwin Initiative projects.