The Social Protection Thematic Window closed for applications on January 29, 2012. We received 54 applications under the three pre-selected clusters: public works programs, conditional and unconditional cash transfers, and youth training and labour insertion. Over the next two weeks, each application will be reviewed and scored by three external and one internal expert reviewer. Those that are scored to be technically sufficient will be ranked according to their combined policy score and will then be reviewed by the Social Protection Thematic Window International Selection Panel.

3ie and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) are pleased to announce the members of the Social Protection Thematic Window International Selection Panel. This panel of distinguished professionals was chosen to represent southern and northern stakeholders as well as governments, NGOs, and the research community. These members will meet in March to review the list of technically sufficient applications and make the final award recommendations for approval by the 3ie Board of Commissioners in April. 

The members of the Social Protection Thematic Window International Selection Panel are:

Albert Byamugisha, Commissioner for the Monitoring & Evaluation Department, Office of the Prime Minister, Uganda

Marie Gaarder, Director of Evaluation, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)

Ricardo Henriques, President of Pereira Passos Municipal Urban Planning Institute (IPP)

Thomas de Hoop, Evaluation Officer, 3ie

Joanna McGowan, Economic Adviser for the Governance, Conflict, and Social Development Team in the Research and Evidence Division of the Department for International Development (DFID).

Tavengwa Nhongo, Executive Director, Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP).

Ingrid Woolard, Associate Professor, School of Economics, University of Cape Town.

To read the detailed bios of the panelists, click here.

Background

3ie called for new and innovative impact evaluation proposals on social protection in September, 2011. The deadline for the submission of expressions of interest was November 7, 2011.

This grant window dedicated to social protection is funded by DFID, with the potential for more funding from 3ie.

This is the first thematic window being launched by 3ie and is part of an ongoing drive to fund high quality research that helps us gather a body of evidence and understand what works, why and under what circumstances in particular sectors and sub-sectors. A strong shared agenda has been developed across 3ie and DFID based on a clear poverty focus, a commitment to building national capacity and to communicating findings so that new evidence makes a real difference to policy and practice in developing countries.

For the benefit of applicants, 3ie released a scoping report that provides an overview of the social protection sector and the thinking that went into the design of this grant programme.

Download the Request for Proposals.

Grants

This window will fund 7 to12 impact evaluations of up to a total of US$5 million. There is no maximum size for individual grants, although best value for money will be explicitly assessed.

Application process

The application process involved two steps: submission of an expression of interest and later a full application. Only those who passed the expression of interest stage were allowed to submit a full application.  All proposals were submitted using 3ie’s online grant application system.

We received a total of 220 Expressions Of Interest (EOIs). Of these, 84 were invited to submit a full application.

In terms of geographical coverage, the 220 EOIs covered 70 countries. They mainly covered sub-Saharan Africa (39%) followed by South Asia (23%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (23%). Around 75% of the EOIs sought evidence on research questions that related to the overall impact of social protection programmes, 16% focused on design issues related to social protection programmes, and 9% related to analysis of the political and institutional conditions that determined the selection of the programmatic approach. 

Three clusters were identified during the review process: 1) public works programs (22 EOIs), 2) unconditional/social and conditional cash transfers (60 EOIs) and 3) youth training and labour insertion (22 EOIs). For more information on the review process of the expressions of interest, click here.

Review process

All the expressions of interest were reviewed by an internal and external reviewer. After this quality assessment, 3ie and DFID selected the clusters based primarily on the under-researched questions as laid out in the scoping report.

For more information, please read the Frequently Asked Questions.