Latest blogs

Evolution or revolution? What MDB course corrections mean for evaluators

“Hard a starboard!” These were the orders of First Officer William Murdoch aboard RMS Titanic on the night of 14 April 1912 immediately after lookouts signaled a rather large obstacle ahead. Though still half a kilometer away, the gigantic ship nonetheless struck the iceberg that was in its way.

Major bilateral and multilateral organizations sign 3ie-led Global Evidence Commitment

Last week, during the high-profile IDB Knowledge Week, 3ie launched the Global Evidence Commitment, an opportunity for leading international development institutions – bilaterals, multilateral development banks, international NGOs, philanthropies – to come together to improve the culture and practice of evidence use in their institutions.

Unveiling trends in impact evaluations across Latin America and the Caribbean

3ie’s Development Evidence Portal (DEP) team is writing a series of blogs designed to provide insights and explore regional trends from the data housed within the world’s largest repository for rigorous international development evaluations. Our first destination in this series is Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a region ranking third in terms of the number of impact evaluations (IEs) with 1910. Here we provide a brief overview of the region, and we encourage interested users to utilize the DEP to do your own explorations.

Adolescents not a monolith, empowerment interventions need to have life-cycle approach

Over the last few months, 3ie has been working with Co-Impact to create a researcher-practitioner partnership to inform a holistic, evidence-informed approach to adolescent empowerment in India. A few weeks ago, we held a workshop to bring together stakeholders from the government, academia, research and grassroots organizations and donors to collaboratively inform a long-term research agenda. This blog includes a few reflections from those conversations.

What works to reverse democratic backsliding? It’s complicated

Many countries have faced democratic backsliding or autocratization, especially in the past 30 years. With a staggering 72 percent of the world population living in autocracies (according to the V-Dem 2023 report), we need more evidence to better understand what works to support democracy and freedom in backsliding contexts to reverse this trend. To support this effort towards evidence-informed decision-making in democracy programming, 3ie has gathered existing findings in an evidence gap map and rapid evidence assessment (REA), with support from the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Evidence base of sexual and reproductive health and rights interventions growing, but gaps remain

Ahead of World Contraception Day (26 September) and International Safe Abortion Day (28 September), UN experts called for states, especially those in emergency, humanitarian and crisis situations, to promote, protect and respect sexual and reproductive health and all related rights. To do this, the experts underscored the need to establish inclusive policies, evidence-informed services, and leadership rooted in international human rights conventions. In our latest evidence gap map (EGM) on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)

Seven ideas for rapid evidence that is both rigorous and actionable

When policymakers come to us for rapid response evidence, they want it to be immediate, actionable, and reliable, drawing on findings from high-quality evaluations. These requirements can sometimes seem to be at odds – often there are details of a specific policy situation that have not yet been addressed by rigorous research. So how do we balance the competing needs to be both actionable and rigorous?

Launch of 3ie’s policy and institutional reform ‘Methods Menu’

In May 2021, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and 3ie began a partnership to advance the learning and knowledge base around the evaluation, design, and implementation of policy and institutional reform (PIR) interventions. We conducted a scoping review that identified gaps in the way PIR interventions are studied and evaluated, and we are now ready to launch an interactive ‘Methods Menu’ that aims to address many of those gaps. The menu aims to increase awareness and uptake of complexity-informed and mixed-methods approaches to strengthen the way PIR is evaluated and implemented.

Towards SDG 7: Mapping evidence of access to sustainable energy in L&MICs

With the slowing down of progress towards SDG 7, we move into the second phase of the 2030 agenda with more urgent questions about what interventions are effective to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the war in Ukraine aggravated the global energy crisis resulting in the scaling back of even basic electricity access around the world

Mapping evidence and gaps in interventions reducing anaemia in low- and middle-income countries

In 2019, 269 million children under five, 32 million pregnant women, and over half a billion women of reproductive age were reported to be affected by anaemia. The condition causes adverse health outcomes, delayed cognitive and physical development in children, and reduced productivity which may lead to economic losses

About

Evidence Matters is 3ie’s blog. It primarily features contributions from staff and board members. Guest blogs are by invitation.

3ie publishes blogs in the form received from the authors. Any errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors. Views expressed are their own and do not represent the opinions of 3ie, its board of commissioners or supporters.

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