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When Will We Ever Learn? Closing the Evaluation Gap
When Will We Ever Learn? Closing the Evaluation Gap
Each year billions of dollars are spent on thousands of programs to improve health, education and other social sector outcomes in the developing world. But very few programs benefit from studies that could determine whether or not they actually made a difference. This absence of evidence is an urgent problem: it not only wastes money but denies poor people crucial support to improve their lives.
In 2004 the Center for Global Development, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, convened the Evaluation Gap Working Group. The group was asked to investigate why rigorous impact evaluations of social development programs, whether financed directly by developing country governments or supported by international aid, are relatively rare. Its final report, "When Will We Ever Learn? Improving Lives through Impact Evaluation," published in 2006, called on developing countries, aid agencies, foundations and NGOs to close the evaluation gap by adopting good practices in terms of independently evaluating the impact of their own programs and by collectively creating and financing an independent agency to promote and finance rigorous impact evaluations of interest to the entire international community. The analysis and recommendations are also summarized in “Learning from Development: the Case for an International Council to Catalyze Independent Impact Evaluations of Social Sector Interventions.”
Today, countries and agencies are putting more resources into impact evaluation. Following the recommendations of the Evaluation Gap Initiative, twelve countries, foundations and NGOs established The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation in 2009. This new organization has not only financed studies that are important to policy decisions but assisted countries in institutionalizing the conduct and use of rigorous evidence in policymaking.
In this four-minute clip from 2010, CGD senior fellow William Savedoff and former vice president Ruth Levine tell the story of how CGD’s Closing the Evaluation Gap initiative led to the creation of the International Institute for Impact Evaluation (3ie).
The Center for Global Development continues to follow developments in this critical area for improving public policy in developing countries and improving aid effectiveness through its research, blogs and a newsletter that is published six times a year.
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Efforts to design better aid programs often are hampered by the failure to evaluate what works—and what doesn’t—in existing programs. Today, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and other important efforts are helping fill the evaluation gap.
My guest this week is senior ...
This paper analyzes some of the elements that cause the perception in the realm of social policy that too little evidence is produced and used on the impact of specific policies and programs on human development. They propose we develop Results-Based Social Policy Design and Implementation systems...
Michael Clemens, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD)
and visiting scholar at the Financial Access Initiative and at NYU-Wagner
and the NYU Dept. of Economics (Spring 2011), talks about the findings from
his research into the UN Millennium Villages.
In this four-minute clip from 2010, CGD senior fellow William Savedoff and former vice president Ruth Levine tell the story of how CGD’s Closing the Evaluation Gap initiative led to the creation of the International Institute for Impact Evaluation (3ie), a new institute for impact...
In development, it's good to try new, innovative ideas-- but even better to know whether or not they work. My guests this week are Michael Clemens, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, and Gabriel Demombynes, a senior economist at the World Bank, based in Nairobi, Kenya. They have...
The authors examine the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa, to illustrate the benefits of rigorous impact evaluation. Estimates of the project’s effects depend heavily on the...
Focusing on the role of rigorous evaluation in policy interventions and highlighting lessons learned from conditional cash transfer programs in the health and education sectors, the event will be an opportunity for dialogue between high-level policymakers and researchers to discuss the implications...
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), established by Congress in 2004 to administer a major new U.S. development assistance effort, has undertaken a concerted strategy to address this evaluation gap, sponsoring rigorous independent evaluations of its funded projects so as to build...
In September 2008 official aid donors and recipients will meet in Accra, Ghana, to discuss how to make development assistance more effective. CGD president Nancy Birdsall and co-author Kate Vyborny suggest that advocates of better aid who really want a win at Accra forget haggling over broad...
Accelerating social progress in low- and middle-income countries requires knowledge about what kinds of social programs are effective. Yet all too often, such basic knowledge is lacking because country governments and donor and implementing agencies dedicated to development have few incentives to...
The authors examine the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa, to illustrate the benefits of rigorous impact evaluation. Estimates of the project’s effects depend heavily on the...
Each year billions of dollars are spent on thousands of programs to improve health, education and other social sector outcomes in the developing world. But very few programs benefit from studies that could determine whether or not they actually made a difference. This absence of evidence is an...
This paper analyzes some of the elements that cause the perception in the realm of social policy that too little evidence is produced and used on the impact of specific policies and programs on human development. They propose we develop Results-Based Social Policy Design and Implementation systems...
In September 2008 official aid donors and recipients will meet in Accra, Ghana, to discuss how to make development assistance more effective. CGD president Nancy Birdsall and co-author Kate Vyborny suggest that advocates of better aid who really want a win at Accra forget haggling over broad...
This brief outlines the problems that inhibit learning in social development programs, describes the characteristics of a collective international solution, and shows how the international community can accelerate progress by learning what works in social policy. It draws heavily on the work of...
CGD senior fellow and director of programs Ruth Levine has urged the U.S. Congress to push for independent evaluation of development assistance. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Levine said that independent impact evaluation is crucial for ensuring that the billions of...
Focusing on the role of rigorous evaluation in policy interventions and highlighting lessons learned from conditional cash transfer programs in the health and education sectors, the event will be an opportunity for dialogue between high-level policymakers and researchers to discuss the implications...
CGD program director Ruth Levine argues that independent impact evaluation of anti-corruption programs will be crucial to the success of the new World Bank campaign against corruption. As corruption-fighting programs are put into place, she writes, donor and recipient countries should request and...
In this four-minute clip from 2010, CGD senior fellow William Savedoff and former vice president Ruth Levine tell the story of how CGD’s Closing the Evaluation Gap initiative led to the creation of the International Institute for Impact Evaluation (3ie), a new institute for impact...
How should the world's largest and most influential development institution address the challenges of the 21st Century? Ten distinguished speakers gathered on the eve of the World Bank/IMF 2005 Annual Meetings to offer fresh ideas. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and CGD President Nancy...
Nancy Birdsall is the Center for Global Development's founding president. From 1993 to 1998, she was executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest of the regional development banks, where she oversaw a $30 billion public and private loan portfolio. Before that she...
Michael Clemens is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development where he leads the Migration and Development initiative. His current research focuses on the effects of international migration on people from and in developing countries, and on rigorous impact evaluation for aid projects. He...
Justin Sandefur focuses on the interface of law and development in sub-Saharan Africa. From 2008 to 2010, he served as an adviser to the Tanzanian government to set up the country's National Panel Survey to monitor poverty dynamics and agricultural production. His recent papers concentrate on...
Bill Savedoff has been working for more than 20 years on economic and social development issues. His work is focused on finding ways to improve the quality of social services in developing countries, with particular attention to incentives, institutions, and political economy. His most recent book...
This paper analyzes some of the elements that cause the perception in the realm of social policy that too little evidence is produced and used on the impact of specific policies and programs on human development. They propose we develop Results-Based Social Policy Design and Implementation systems...
The authors examine the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa, to illustrate the benefits of rigorous impact evaluation. Estimates of the project’s effects depend heavily on the...
In September 2008 official aid donors and recipients will meet in Accra, Ghana, to discuss how to make development assistance more effective. CGD president Nancy Birdsall and co-author Kate Vyborny suggest that advocates of better aid who really want a win at Accra forget haggling over broad...
Each year billions of dollars are spent on thousands of programs to improve health, education and other social sector outcomes in the developing world. But very few programs benefit from studies that could determine whether or not they actually made a difference. This absence of evidence is an...
This brief outlines the problems that inhibit learning in social development programs, describes the characteristics of a collective international solution, and shows how the international community can accelerate progress by learning what works in social policy. It draws heavily on the work of...
CGD program director Ruth Levine argues that independent impact evaluation of anti-corruption programs will be crucial to the success of the new World Bank campaign against corruption. As corruption-fighting programs are put into place, she writes, donor and recipient countries should request and...
CGD senior fellow and director of programs Ruth Levine has urged the U.S. Congress to push for independent evaluation of development assistance. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Levine said that independent impact evaluation is crucial for ensuring that the billions of...
Focusing on the role of rigorous evaluation in policy interventions and highlighting lessons learned from conditional cash transfer programs in the health and education sectors, the event will be an opportunity for dialogue between high-level policymakers and researchers to discuss the implications...
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), established by Congress in 2004 to administer a major new U.S. development assistance effort, has undertaken a concerted strategy to address this evaluation gap, sponsoring rigorous independent evaluations of its funded projects so as to build...
Accelerating social progress in low- and middle-income countries requires knowledge about what kinds of social programs are effective. Yet all too often, such basic knowledge is lacking because country governments and donor and implementing agencies dedicated to development have few incentives to...
Starting in the 1950s, Norman Borlaug led an international effort to develop short, fertilizer-responsive grain varieties that became the basis of the Green Revolution, more than doubling harvests and helping to avert famines in much of the developing world, especially Asia. Borlaug has also been a...
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane has created an independent non-government body, The African Monitor, which aims to monitor fulfillment of economic and social development projects, raise expectations and awareness of grass roots groups-including faith networks-and motivate groups to hold authorities...
What works to achieve better health, education and other social outcomes in developing countries? Despite the billions of dollars spent on such programs each year, little is known because rigorous, independent impact evaluations are almost never conducted. The Evaluation Gap Working Group set out...
CGD hosted a panel discussion on HIV/AIDS and evaluation. Speakers included Martha Ainsworth, World Bank; Ruth Levine, Center for Global Development; Michele Orza, Institute of Medicine; and Cyril Pervilhac, World Health Organization.
How should the world's largest and most influential development institution address the challenges of the 21st Century? Ten distinguished speakers gathered on the eve of the World Bank/IMF 2005 Annual Meetings to offer fresh ideas. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and CGD President Nancy...
Efforts to design better aid programs often are hampered by the failure to evaluate what works—and what doesn’t—in existing programs. Today, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and other important efforts are helping fill the evaluation gap.
My guest this week is senior ...
Michael Clemens, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD)
and visiting scholar at the Financial Access Initiative and at NYU-Wagner
and the NYU Dept. of Economics (Spring 2011), talks about the findings from
his research into the UN Millennium Villages.
In this four-minute clip from 2010, CGD senior fellow William Savedoff and former vice president Ruth Levine tell the story of how CGD’s Closing the Evaluation Gap initiative led to the creation of the International Institute for Impact Evaluation (3ie), a new institute for impact...
In development, it's good to try new, innovative ideas-- but even better to know whether or not they work. My guests this week are Michael Clemens, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, and Gabriel Demombynes, a senior economist at the World Bank, based in Nairobi, Kenya. They have...
There is increasing frustration among us in developing countries about the prescriptive 'fads' about what works and what improves the quality of life for all people sustainably. -Timothy Thahane, Minister of Finance, Lesotho
There is increasing frustration among us in developing countries about the prescriptive 'fads' about what works and what improves the quality of life for all people sustainably. -Timothy Thahane, Minister of Finance, Lesotho
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Improving Lives through Impact Evaluation
