2026 External Impact Evaluation

The evaluation highlighted several key findings:

• The evaluation found that NRGI contributed to meaningful changes to build more accountable and inclusive natural resource governance, with influence in four main areas across multiple countries: strengthening policies and regulatory reforms, building diverse coalitions and trust among stakeholders, supporting narrative and discourse change, and strengthening knowledge and capabilities.
• NRGI’s analysis and technical assistance have been widely used by policymakers, civil society organizations, and journalists to inform concrete policy processes, institutional reforms and public disclosure mechanisms across multiple countries and globally.
• NRGI's ability to bring together actors who previously had limited trust or direct engagement was recognized as a distinctive comparative advantage.
• Combining rigorous evidence, trusted relationships, convening power, and sustained accompaniment was found to achieve actionable reforms and stronger accountability systems in ways no single approach can achieve alone. The evaluation also found that NRGI's influence is linked both to direct policy wins and to strengthening the systems and relationships that make governance reform possible, underscoring that impact requires long-term partnership and building from foundational outcomes. 

The evaluation also identified areas where we can deepen our impact:

• Sustaining and implementing policy gains. The evaluation notes that implementation challenges persist. NRGI has devoted significant effort to understanding and addressing these challenges. Going forward, this requires redoubled efforts to build strategies for long-term monitoring into project design from the outset and secure sufficient resources for follow-up.
• Strengthening the translation of evidence into influence. The evaluation reinforces a key element of our theory of change, that high-quality analysis can spur change only when accompanied by strong advocacy and a nuanced influencing strategy. We are strengthening our evidence-influence cycle through earlier identification of precise audiences and dissemination channels, pre-publication consultation with key stakeholders, and more systematic efforts to connect research and learning across countries.
• Power and political economy analysis. The evaluation noted the need to deepen our integration of political economy analysis, mindful of a policy environment where well-resourced and entrenched interests play an outsized role.
• Clarifying expectations and roles in our partnerships and alliances. As our work evolves, we are engaging with a broader set of actors, which requires intentionality about our role in each partnership and transparency about where our positions may diverge. We are committed to being more explicit in how we define, build, and manage partnerships.

Read our full management response or the executive summary of the evaluation report.