The evidence-to-policy conundrum and how to solve it

Does better evidence lead to better policies and programs? Massive amounts of reliable evidence, drawing on scientifically strong methods, including randomized controlled trials, mixed-methods approaches, and more, have been generated and disseminated in recent decades. A Nobel Prize has been awarded for that pathbreaking work. Yet the impact of that evidence – on what policymakers and program implementers think and do – has been far below expectations, even pitifully tiny according to some accounts. billion people.

Insights from the Development Evidence Portal – the Middle East and North Africa

Our latest piece in the ‘state of the evidence’ series – which interprets data by unpacking the studies in our Development Evidence Portal (DEP) – focuses on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. . The DEP currently includes 740 impact evaluations (IE) and 352 systematic reviews (SR) from the region, which is the second smallest amongst regions containing low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs). Interested readers are encouraged to further explore the DEP for additional data not covered in this blog.

Previous Pause Next

Latest blogs

Delivering Global Public Goods

Howard White 09 January 2013 blog

3ie not only funds studies, it also sets international standards for impact evaluation. For the studies we fund, we do this through our review process. For others, we offer quality assurance services and issue conceptual papers and guidelines. We have also launched a replication programme to test the robustness of study findings, and are preparing a registry of planned impact evaluations in low and middle income countries.

Matching policymakers and researchers

Jyotsna Puri 03 January 2013 blog

The chasm between policymakers and researchers is frequently observed but seldom addressed. A little over two weeks ago, 3ie organized a matchmaking market place to bridge this gap between research and policy. The setting for this was the Dhaka Colloquium for Systematic Reviews in International Development. The people who came together for this innovative matchmaking exercise were both ‘users’ and ‘doers’ of systematic reviews.

Using impact evaluation to improve policies and programmes

Howard White 26 December 2012 blog

Community-level water supply does not have health benefits. There is emerging evidence that community-driven development programmes do not increase social cohesion. These statements can be made with confidence based on the considerable body of evidence from impact evaluations undertaken to answer the question of what works in development. 3ie is now adding this body of evidence as more completed studies are becoming available.

How useful are systematic reviews in international development?

Martina Vojtkova 13 December 2012 blog

Systematic reviews summarise all the evidence on a particular intervention or programme and were first developed in the health sector. The health reviews have a specific audience: doctors, nurses and health practitioners. The audience is also easily able to find the systematic reviews. But there seems to be a big difference in the accessibility of evidence between the health and development sectors.

Special feature for World AIDS Day 2012

Eric Djimeu 30 November 2012 blog

There has been only a small decline in the prevalence of HIV in the last decade, dropping from 5.9 percent to 5 percent between 2001 and 2009 for those aged 15-49 (UNAIDS, 2010). This decrease, whilst important, does not seem impressive compared to over US$5 billion spent fighting AIDS in low and middle income countries each year (the latest available figure is US$5.1 billion in 2008).

Field notes on implementing impact evaluations

Radhika Menon 11 November 2012 blog

3ie is currently funding 100 impact evaluations in low and middle-income countries spread across Africa, Asia and Latin America. We are now in a unique position to learn a lot about what’s working well in designing and conducting impact evaluations and what can be done better to ensure that research produces reliable and actionable findings.

Early stimulation and micronutrients interventions

Christelle Chapoy 07 September 2012 blog

Why should we put more money into early childhood development interventions? Does this help children in secondary education? Should we invest in preschool programmes or more in home stimulation or parenting classes? What is most cost-effective? These are key questions that policymakers are grappling with at a time when early childhood development is emerging as a priority issue for many developing countries.

Can we do small n impact evaluations?

Howard White 28 August 2012 blog

3ie was set up to fill ‘the evaluation gap’, the lack of evidence about ‘what works in development’. Our founding document stated that 3ie will be issues-led, not methods led, seeking the best available method to answer the evaluation question at hand. We have remained true to this vision in that we have already funded close to 100 studies in over 30 countries around the world.

Exercising credibility: why a theory of change matters

Howard White 28 August 2012 blog

The strength of randomized control trials (RCTS), like this study, is their ability to establish causal relationships between the intervention and the outcome. But we need factual analysis of what happened, to help complement the counterfactual analysis of causality. In the case of this study, participants should have been asked to keep food and exercise diaries.

Evaluating the impact of stimulation and micronutrients on early childhood development

21 July 2012 blog

The preliminary results and analysis of this study was presented at the Promises for Preschoolers: Early Childhood Development and Human Capital Accumulation conference on 25 June in London. We designed, implemented and tested a programme in Colombia with the explicit aim of offering a blueprint for such a scalable intervention. We wanted to address these challenges as well as generate data that allowed us to learn in a deeper and more scientific fashion.

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.