January 2011

Almost five years ago, CGD published “When Will We Ever Learn?” which included a series of recommendations for promoting more and better impact evaluations. The report emphasized that developing countries themselves are the key to studying, learning and taking action on the findings of impact evaluations, so it is gratifying to see India establish an independent evaluation office. The report called on aid agencies to improve their own evaluations and support international efforts, so I’m really pleased to see USAID adopt a new evaluation policy and join 3ie. The report also called for greater transparency and sharing of data, so it is great to see the World Bank publicly post survey data. Over the course of this year, we’ll be assessing how much countries, foundations, NGOs, and universities have progressed since the Evaluation Gap Working Group issued its recommendations. Stay tuned!

Regards,


William D. Savedoff
Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development

India establishes an Independent Evaluation Office

India recently approved the establishment of an Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) to assess the outcomes and impact of its major flagship programs. The IEO will be an independent office attached to the Planning Commission and the findings of its evaluations will be in the public domain. The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), assisted India by organizing an international consultative conference during the planning phase for this new institution.

USAID announces new evaluation policy and joins 3ie

Raj Shah, marking his first year as USAID Administrator, gave a major speech to present the changes he has been introducing at USAID. He also announced a new evaluation policy. In addition to reinforcing the agency's monitoring and evaluation system, the policy allocates funds to selectively commission independent impact evaluations of USAID programs and commits to publicly disseminate these studies. Shah also announced that USAID will contribute to global efforts to improve evidence about development programs by joining the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). In Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, Bill Savedoff notes that these commitments fulfill two key recommendations of CGD's Evaluation Gap Working Group report.

Deposit a DIME? World Bank posts primary data on the web

The World Bank has supported a lot of good impact evaluations over the last 10 years, particularly through The Development Impact Evaluation Initiative (DIME), and the Spanish Trust Fund for Impact Evaluation (SIEF). Recently, it has gone a step further toward greater transparency and openness by creating a catalogue of survey data from some of these studies, allowing anyone interested in analyzing and using this data to access them. The site also provides an opportunity for researchers to "deposit" their survey data. Posting data in this way should be the standard for all researchers, to allow others to test and replicate results as well as to exploit survey information to answer new questions. (Photo courtesy of Clipart ETC)

Additional Resources

• The Network of Networks on Impact Evaluation (NONIE) has called for proposals to present at its next meeting, 28-29 March, in Paris. Deadline for submissions is January 31.
• The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and partners will be holding a conference, "Mind the Gap: From Evidence to Policy Impact" in Cuernavaca on June 15-17, 2011. The deadline for submitting abstracts is February 7.
• Ideas on evaluating defense, diplomacy and development? The U.S. State Department is calling for proposals to present at its forth annual program evaluation conference. Deadline for submission is February 18.
• Johannes Linn, Homi Kharas and co-authors have published Scaling Up the Fight Against Rural Poverty, an assessment of programs at the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
• The DAC Evaluation Resource Centre (DEReC) has over 300 impact evaluation studies in its searchable database.
• Rosemary McGee and John Gaventa tackle hard questions about efforts to improve governance in "The Impact and Effectiveness of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives: A review of the evidence to date.
• The Inter-American Development Bank, recognizing the limitations of a prior agricultural project evaluation in the Dominican Republic, is placing greater emphasis on strong evaluation in a second phase.
• For some presentations on impact evaluation see these videos posted by Larry Dershem of Save the Children