Working papers

These papers cover a range of content. They may focus on current issues, debates and enduring challenges. Policy-relevant papers in this series synthesise or draw on relevant 3ie-funded studies and reviews, as well as other rigorous evidence, to offer new analyses, findings, insights and recommendations. Methods papers and technical guides help advance understanding, design, and use of rigorous and appropriate evaluations and reviews. 3ie also uses this series to publish lessons learned from 3ie grant-making.

Latest working papers

Working papers

Learning from collective-led sanitation enterprises in urban Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana

Working paper

2022 This paper summarizes the findings of a learning study on the processes and lessons from recent efforts of the Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana governments to improve sanitation services and provide employment opportunities to urban collectives through fecal sludge management, and operation and maintenance of community and public toilets.

Use of performance-based contracts for road maintenance projects: a rapid evidence assessment

Working paper

2022 Authors of this rapid evidence assessment synthesize available rigorous impact evaluations of performance-based contracting in road construction in low income and low-and-middle-income countries.

Evaluation of IDEA project in Bangladesh: a baseline report

Working paper 3ie

2022 Authors of this report present the findings from a baseline survey of a WorldFish aquaculture project, Increasing income, diversifying diets and empowering women (IDEA) in Bangladesh. This baseline report is part of an ongoing impact evaluation of the project that focuses on the Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions.

A framework for examining women’s economic empowerment in collective enterprises

Working paper 3ie

2022 Women-owned collective enterprises are seen as vehicles for promoting economic empowerment. To assess how collective enterprise-based interventions can lead to empowerment, it's important to understand the pathways to change.

Understanding caste-based differences in self help groups: Evidence from India’s NRLM program

Working paper 3ie

2022 Authors of this paper analyze the caste-based differences in office bearer positions, participation and benefits received by women who are members of self-help groups under India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

Incorporating process evaluation into impact evaluation: what, why and how

Working paper 3ie

2022 The authors of this paper lay down guidelines that can provide impact evaluators with tools and ideas on how to explore and add relevant elements of process evaluations to experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluation designs.

Promoting women’s groups for facilitating market linkages in Bihar, India

Working paper 3ie

2021 Authors of this paper analyze the effects of market linkages on women's agricultural producer groups, which are part of the Women's Advancement in Rural Development and Agriculture (WARDA) project in Purnea District, Bihar.

What stimulates the demand for grid-based electrification in low-and middle-income countries?

Working paper 3ie

2021 Authors of this paper outline the findings from a rapid evidence assessment that synthesizes available rigorous impact evaluations of interventions that stimulate demand for electrification in resource-constrained settings.

Improving delivery and impacts of pro-poor programmes

Working paper 3ie

2021 Authors of this paper examine how the convergence of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in the early stages of the self-help group life cycle influences the project implementation and household outcomes.

Understanding India’s self-help groups: an organisational anatomy of functionality in a district in Madhya Pradesh

Working paper 3ie

2021 Authors of this working paper present findings of a qualitative research study on the functioning of women’s self-help groups in Madhya Pradesh.