In October 2005, in the light of the rapid changes in the field of impact assessment, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis for Technology Development and Institutional Innovation (PRGA Program) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) brought together about 30 impact-assessors for an Impact Assessment Workshop, convened at CIMMYT Headquarters in Mexico. Participant-contributors were drawn from the research-for-development sector through a competitive call for papers. The objective of the workshop was to foster mutual learning among impact-assessors within the CG Centers, by allowing participants to present their experiences and empirical results, as well as bringing outside experts to present on topics of interest. Participants discussed the status quo of agricultural impact assessment and options for its future. This publication presents enhanced versions of six of the papers presented at the workshop, as well as an overview paper – together shedding light on some of the challenges of assessing the impact of participatory and gender analysis approaches in a changing public agricultural research environment.