Evaluation Gap Update | December 2008

Hard Times Call for Hard Data

The Governments of India and the U.K. have agreed on a joint program to support impact evaluations that can inform major public policy decisions around social programs. The agreement, between Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India and Douglas Alexander, the UK's secretary of state for international development (DFID), came on the heels of the G-20 meeting in November on the global economic crisis, and responds in part to the need to make every public dollar go further. For more, see this blog post.

New Home for 3ie with the Global Development Network in India and Egypt

The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is moving ahead with its mission to promote and improve impact evaluation work in developing countries. 3ie recently completed an agreement with the Global Development Network under which that organization will temporarily host 3ie at its headquarters in Delhi and Cairo. Meanwhile, 3ie has launched its first call for applications for proposal preparation grants and the “open window.” It also is in the process of commissioning a set of synthetic reviews.

What are the Enduring Questions in Development Policy?

3ie will be holding a workshop on February 1-2, 2009, in Kuwait to identify important development policy questions that are likely to remain relevant over the next 5 to 10 years and that would be amenable to impact evaluations. These enduring questions will set priorities for 3ie’s impact evaluation grant program and help member organizations to cluster impact evaluation work around common themes.

Better Evaluation in U.S. Foreign Assistance Program

A coalition of about 20 U.S. organizations involved in development assistance have created a framework for modernization of the U.S. aid program from legislative underpinnings to institutional structure to mechanisms for accountability and feedback. (CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet is co-chair of the group; read his recent Q&A here.) While this represents a challenging agenda, particularly in light of growing fiscal pressures, the degree of consensus among leaders in the field about the direction of reform is unprecedented and in line with statements made by President-elect Barack Obama during the campaign.

One of the four priority actions laid out by the coalition “increase funding and accountability of foreign assistance” represents a clear opportunity to promote a new approach to evaluation. Efforts are now underway at CGD and elsewhere in the U.S. development policy community to propose better mechanisms for accountability and learning from experience, including stepped-up impact evaluation activities, improvements in monitoring and sharing of information about program implementation, and support for government and civil society organizations in countries that receive aid to gain knowledge about what works within specific contexts.

AfrEA, NONIE & 3ie Joint Conference on Perspectives on Impact Evaluation

The African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), 3ie and the Network of Networks on Impact Evaluation (NONIE) are co-sponsoring an International Conference in Africa for policy-makers, program managers, and evaluators from March 29-April 2, 2009, in Cairo. The Conference will include training opportunities along with seminars and presentations at the main conference, providing many opportunities to interact, network and reflect on different forms of impact evaluation and the role of impact evaluation in policymaking. Proposals to present at the conference should be sent to [email protected] by December 15.

A limited number of conference bursaries are available for participants who are nationals of a developing country (low- or middle-income country as given by the World Bank list). This bursary will cover economy airfare, visa and ground transportation, hotel, and conference fee. Preference is given to those actively engaged in impact evaluation, and who have submitted a contribution to the conference. More information is available at the 3ie website under “Announcements”; the deadline to apply is January 4, 2009.

Strong Evaluation Approach Required Under PEPFAR Authorization

In the $48 billion reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. Congress laid out an ambitious evaluation agenda (see blog post). In its first phase, PEPFAR has come under criticism for focusing on short-term monitoring indicators and targets, and for not having established at the outset a framework for collecting and analyzing information to answer basic questions about the effectiveness (and unintended consequences) of the large-scale inflows of resources to countries with generalized AIDS epidemics. As the program goes forward, changes are being made including attention to evaluation that reflect a shift from an “emergency” approach to support for a systemic and sustained response to HIV/AIDS.

Additional Resources

The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy holds workshops and advocates for the use of good quality evidence in U.S. policymaking, including a recent event highlighting the Millennium Challenge Account’s evaluation approach (see transcript of the event). Their website, “Social Programs That Work”, includes references and links to evidence for policymaking in social services.
In a study of protected areas in Costa Rica for the Evaluation Office of the Global Environment Facility, Andam et al (2008) found that protection reduced deforestation rates by less than 10 percent. This estimate is less than a third of the impact found by a naïve estimator (a comparison of protected and unprotected areas which does not allow for selection bias), showing the importance of addressing this issue in impact studies.
The Campbell Collaboration will be holding its Ninth Annual Colloquium in association with The Lancet on May 18-20, 2009 in Oslo, Norway. Entitled “Better Evidence for a Better World” the Colloquium will focus on learning about effective measures to reduce poverty in low-and middle-income countries.