August 2008

August 2008

3ie is Seeking Nominations for Commissioners

The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is seeking nominations for people to serve as one of 5 voting members on its Board of Commissioners. For these posts, 3ie's nominating committee is seeking senior professionals who are well respected among their peers for their integrity, professionalism, and expertise; and who are strongly committed to promoting the use of evidence from impact evaluation studies in public policy decision-making. The nominating committee is seeking individuals from diverse backgrounds to assure that 3ie will have a wide range of perspectives and expertise represented on its Board.

Please send nominations for 3ie Commissioners to Bill Savedoff (acting secretary for the nominating committee) or Ben Tucker of Heidrick & Struggles (an Executive Search firm that has been hired to assist the nominating committee). All communications will be kept confidential.

UK Parliamentary Committee Calls for Impact Evaluation

A recent reportby the International Development Committee of the United Kingdom Parliament recommended that the Department for International Development (DFID) should devote more resources to rigorous impact evaluations.

Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network Annual Meeting

The Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet) will hold its annual conference in Accra (Ghana) on 11 12 September 2008 with a focus on “Development Impact Evaluation.” The two conference days will feature sessions with invited and contributed papers, round tables and keynote speeches. The conference is organized by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, the Centre for Policy Analysis, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the German Technical Cooperation.

PEPFAR legislation approved with impact evaluation requirement

The large U.S. HIV/AIDS program, PEPFAR, has been reauthorized by Congress at triple the original spending level up to $48 billion over 5 years. One of the key features introduced into the legislation is a requirement for impact evaluation; for details, see Ruth Levine’s comments in the Global Health Policy blog.

Additional Resources:

  • The European Evaluation Society will hold its next biennial conference on October 1-3 in Lisbon with the theme “Building for the future: Evaluation in governance, development and progress.”
  • The American Evaluation Association will hold its annual conference on November 5-8 in Denver, Colorado. This year's Presidential Theme is Evaluation Policy and Evaluation Practice.
  • “Do Community-Driven Development Projects Enhance Social Capital? Evidence from the Philippines” by Julien Labonne and Robert S. Chase explores the social capital impacts of a large-scale, community-driven development project in the Philippines in which communities competed for block grants for infrastructure investment. The World Bank working paper uses the program’s selection criteria and additional variables to match participating municipalities with others that are relevant for comparison.