If you want your study included in a systematic review, this is what you should report

Birte Snilstveit 05 November 2016 blog  

Impact evaluation evidence continues to accumulate, and policymakers need to understand the range of evidence, not just individual studies. Across all sectors of international development, systematic reviews and meta-analysis (the statistical analysis used in many systematic reviews) are increasingly used to synthesise the evidence on the effects of programmes.

What did I learn about the demand for impact evaluations at the What Works Global Summit?

Emmanuel Jimenez 14 October 2016 blog  

At the recently concluded What Works Global Summit (WWGS) which 3ie co-sponsored, a significant number of the sessions featured presentations on new impact evaluations and systematic reviews. WWGS was a perfect opportunity to learn lessons about the demand for and supply of high-quality evidence for decision-making because it brought together a diverse set of stakeholders. There were donors, knowledge intermediaries, policymakers, programme managers, researchers and service providers.

Is impact evaluation still on the rise?

Annette Brown, Jorge Miranda , Shayda Sabet 11 August 2016 blog  

Since 2014, 3ie’s impact evaluation repository (IER) has been a comprehensive database of published impact evaluations of development programmes in low- and middle-income countries. We call the database comprehensive because we build it from a systematic search and screening process that covers over 35 indexes and websites and screens for all development programme evaluations or experiments that use a counterfactual method for estimating net impact.

Implementing impact evaluations: trade-offs and compromises

Diana Milena Lopez Avila 03 August 2016 blog  

In June this year, 3ie and the International Fund for Agricultural Development organised a workshop where we had several productive discussions around two key questions: Are impact evaluations answering policy-relevant questions and generating useful evidence? What are the challenges faced in designing and implementing impact evaluations of cash transfers and agricultural innovation programmes?

What’s first for replication studies is what’s next for 3ie’s replication programme

Benjamin DK Wood, Annette Brown 28 July 2016 blog  

Many consider pure replication, where the replication researcher starts with the original data set and writes code to recreate the published results according to the methods described in the publication, to be the second step in replication analysis. So, what is the first?

Seizing the Istanbul moment: rooting for evidence at the World Humanitarian Summit

Jyotsna Puri 20 May 2016 blog  

In 2014, global humanitarian assistance totalled US$24.5 billion. The World Humanitarian Assistance Report (2015) noted that there was still a shortfall of 38 per cent in terms of unmet need. The UN Secretary General’s new report for the World Humanitarian Summit, finds that this gap has increased to 47 per cent. Put another way, humanitarian assistance needs to double to meet current needs.

Let’s bring back theory to theory of change

Annette Brown 19 April 2016 blog  

Anyone who has ever applied for a grant from 3ie knows that we care about theory of change. Many others in development care about theory of change as well. Craig Valters of the Overseas Development Institute explains that development professionals are using the term theory of change in three ways: for discourse, as a tool, and as an approach.

How synthesised evidence can help with meeting the Sustainable Development Goals

Edoardo Masset, Emmanuel Jimenez 11 April 2016 blog  

In early 2016, 193 governments across the world put together a to-do list that would intimidate even the most workaholic overachiever: wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years.

The pitfalls of going from pilot to scale, or why ecological validity matters

Annette Brown 04 April 2016 blog  

The hip word in development research these days is scale. For many, the goal of experimenting has become to quickly learn what works and then scale up those things that do. It is so popular to talk about scaling up these days that some have started using upscale as a verb, which might seem a bit awkward to those who live in upscale neighbourhoods or own upscale boutiques.

Impact Evaluation: How the Wonkiest Subject in the World Got Traction

Ruth Levine 17 March 2016 blog  
Creating 3ie was the outcome of the Evaluation Gap Working Groupthat we led along with Nancy Birdsall to address the limited number of rigorous impact evaluation of public policies in developing countries. As CGD celebrates its 15th year, it is worth considering what made that working group so successful, the obstacles we confronted, and the work that still remains to be done.