An integrated evaluation framework for co-produced socio-technical innovation bundles

Co-producing sustainability and equity through development interventions takes many forms 1 . Methodologies such as participatory action research (PAR), participatory modelling (PM) and network governance (NG) can bridge conflicting values, democratise knowledge creation and drive social change. Such methodologies are particularly relevant to agricultural innovation systems, where heterogeneous actors and emergent learning processes shape outcomes. Yet evaluating co-production remains difficult 2 . Conventional monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) methods rarely go beyond stakeholder participation, despite the responsiveness of PAR, PM and NG to local needs, uncertainty and institutional context. Consequently, the transformative potential of these is hard to define, measure and communicate 3 . Donors, communities and practitioners, nonetheless, seek assurance that investments of time and resources are worthwhile, making MEL central to accountability and learning. Our framework does not presume that participatory interventions are necessarily transformative. Rather, it organises complementary forms of evidence through which stakeholders and evaluators can examine whether observed changes represent adaptive improvement, an emerging transformative trajectory or more durable structural transformation. These are treated as analytically distinct possibilities rather than stages on a linear continuum.