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Looking for lessons from wealthier countries, the World Bank recently assessed the role of evaluation in Spain’s public policy process in “Evaluation of Government Performance and Public Policies in Spain.” The study shows that Spain has been making progress toward incorporating evaluation into its policymaking and that this process accelerated after 2005, notably with the creation of the Spanish Agency for the Evaluation of Public Policies and Quality of Services (Agencia Estatal de Evaluación de Políticas Públicas y Calidad de los Servicios Públicos, or AEVAL). Spain has also committed important resources to support impact evaluation in developing countries through a special Trust Fund at the World Bank. Nevertheless, the slow pace and fragmented nature of evaluation practices in Spain demonstrate that the struggle for better informed policymaking is not easy, even in relatively wealthy countries. |
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In her recent blog, Nancy Birdsall, president of CGD, applauds Robert Zoellick (World Bank president) for focusing on research in a recent speech. She speculates whether this could signal a stronger shift in the institution from “pushing out loans” to “sharing knowledge.” She also points out two inexpensive but significant ways the World Bank could do more to build research efforts globally. The first would be to lend its technical and financial support to the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) which supports independent rigorous impact evaluations in developing countries. The second would be to support the Hewlett-Gates-IDRC Think Tank Initiative to encourage the emergence of influential policy research think tanks in developing countries. |
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A concise Project Note by Neha Kumar and Agnes R. Quisumbing, “Does Social Capital Build Women’s Assets? Disseminating Agricultural Technologies to Individuals versus Groups in Bangladesh,” discusses a longitudinal study in three communities. By distinguishing the impact on women and men, they show how “intrahousehold impacts may be quite different from household-level impacts. The individual fishpond program would be considered the most successful at the household level because it increased household assets and consumption the most, but benefits to women and children were actually higher under the group-based programs.” They also look at social capital, arguing that “under collective action, social capital and group liability can substitute for physical capital.” The careful exploration of data yields a wide range of useful behavioral insights and lessons for project design. (photo: Bread for the World) |
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I firmly believe that building an evidence base of good studies on relevant questions eventually feeds into better policymaking. Creating public institutions that systematically introduce impact evaluations into the cycle of policy and budget discussions is a way to accelerate this process of informing policy with evidence. Reading the World Bank’s report on Spain conveys how difficult this can be and gives me even greater appreciation for the efforts I’ve seen in developing countries where governments are increasingly supporting the conduct and use of rigorous impact evaluations.
Regards,
William D. Savedoff
Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development
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