What we offer
At the core of our work, impact evaluations are rigorous studies that measure the effects of international development programmes. We focus on conducting impact evaluations on policy-relevant research questions where credible findings can drive decision-making.

3ie invented evidence gap maps, which provide a visual overview of existing and ongoing studies or reviews in a sector or sub-sector of international development. These maps help policymakers find the most relevant evidence for a given question, thereby improving decision-making.

Our synthesis products, including systematic reviews, integrate findings from multiple different studies which address a common research question. Because they look systematically across the evidence base to see what works and why, systematic reviews and other synthesis products are more reliable for decision-making than results from a single study used in an ad hoc way.

Often, policy decisions must be made quickly. To make sure that decision-makers get the evidence they need when they need it, 3ie has developed a set of helpdesk services and rapid evidence products. Our Rapid Response Briefs and Rapid Evidence Assessments draw from the latest high-quality research to answer policy questions in a fraction of the time of traditional evaluations or systematic reviews.

We work with governments and other organizations to build their capacities in evaluation and evidence-informed decision-making. In addition to providing trainings on a wide range of evaluation methods, we offer ongoing support services to ensure our partners have access to the most up-to-date evidence and evaluation tools.

3ie specialises in increasing access to, demand for and use of evidence by governments, parliaments, programme managers, civil society, programme participants and the media. We do this by emphasising the value of planning and engaging with stakeholders to ensure that evaluations and reviews are relevant and useful. We use robust and effective monitoring to measure evidence use so that we can convey evidence impact on programmes and policies with greater confidence.

Since 3ie was founded, transparency, reproducibility, and ethics (TRE) have been core considerations in our work. We have developed and refined tools and best practices to ensure our studies apply technically rigorous methodologies, transparently share design and analysis decisions, yield computationally reproducible analysis, and incorporate foundational principles of research ethics into design, implementation, and dissemination. 3ie’s Transparency, Reproducibility, and Ethics (TRE) Policy articulates this commitment to TRE best practices.
Evidence hub
3ie’s Development Evidence Portal is the largest-of-its-kind repository of rigorous evidence on what works in international development. This portal includes evaluations and synthesis of studies conducted in low-and middle-income countries. It combines records from 3ie’s Impact Evaluation and Systematic Review repositories, as well as, evidence gap maps.

These provide a visual display of completed and ongoing systematic reviews and impact evaluations in a sector or sub-sector, structured around a framework of interventions and outcomes.

Evidence impact summaries briefly describe how 3ie-supported evidence has informed and influenced decision makers. Each summary highlights verified instances of evidence impact.

We provide funding for replications, conduct in-house replication research and publish guidance on replication methodology. We also provide funding to original authors of 3ie-funded for preparing their raw datasets.

As part of our mandate as a knowledge producer and translator for our main audiences, we publish a range of knowledge products. These include briefs, impact evaluation reports, systematic review reports and summaries, replication papers, evidence gap map reports, scoping reports and working papers.

3ie’s Registry for International Development Impact Evaluations (RIDIE) aims to enhance the transparency and quality of impact evaluation research before it begins.
Our work
- Working with governments
3ie’s evidence programmes support studies to fill critical knowledge gaps in a sector, sub-sector or in an area with limited rigorous evidence. We fund studies under a specific theme or which address a particular question or set of questions in programme areas where our donors want to expand global public knowledge of what works and what does not.

To help address gaps in the understanding of what works and what does not, we fund a variety of studies across this programme area, including interventions focused on insurance, extension, land-use and forestry, and innovation and technology.

3ie supports impact evaluations, systematic reviews and evidence gap maps on education effectiveness that help answer the questions of what works, for whom, why and at what cost.

We fund the production of rigorous evidence on biodiversity and forest conservation programmes, environmental regulations, impact of sustainable fuels, climate change mitigation and adaptation.

3ie is supporting the generation of evidence in areas such as transparency and accountability in natural resource governance. We also fund the production of rigorous evidence on interventions to curb corruption, judicial and civil service reforms, land reforms, public financial management, conflict prevention and peacebuilding, decentralised governance and public service delivery.

We fund the production of rigorous evidence on interventions on HIV and AIDS, immunisation maternal and child health, nutrition and sexual and reproductive health through a number of evidence programmes. Evidence products from these programmes include replication studies, evidence gap maps, systematic reviews and impact evaluations.

We are supporting the generation of rigorous evidence in humanitarian contexts on interventions related to water, sanitation and hygiene, food security, multi-sectoral humanitarian programming and interventions targeting malnutrition.

We fund the production of rigorous evidence on the socio-economic and environmental impacts of public transportation by rail, bus and rapid transit systems, and essential services such as electricity and gas to expand access, foster inclusive growth, and combat climate change through sustainable systems.

3ie, in collaboration with India’s rural development ministry is working to generate rigorous evidence on the impact of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

We support policy-relevant studies that contribute to improving our understanding of public expenditure trends and improving the delivery of public goods.

We support impact evaluations to build the evidence base on the effectiveness of interventions that reduce the risks faced by the poor through participation in public works and employment programmes.

3ie’s has two major evidence programmes that support the generation and use of high-quality evidence for informing decision-making in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector

In alignment with our mission, 3ie promotes rigorous, efficient, and ethical use of innovative data sources for impact evaluations, including in those conducted by 3ie, by 3ie research partners, and in the global development community more broadly.

We set up our Replication Programme to address the need for a freely available global public good that helps improve the quality and reliability of impact evaluation evidence used for development decision-making. Replication is the most established method of research validation in science, yet it has not been fully embraced by the research community or development donors, leading to this gap.

3ie produces research – whether in-house or through grants or contracts – that clearly and precisely documents the data and methods used in the analysis and the materials used to conduct the study. We have experienced and highly skilled staff ready to support the transparent production of evaluations, systematic reviews, and other knowledge products. .

Fragility has expensive, long-term consequences and trying to build peace in situations of protracted conflicts is becoming the norm. In 2016, 1.8 billion people – nearly a quarter of the world's population – were living in situations of fragility. Social cohesion is widely considered important in building sustainable peace in fragile contexts.

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We work with various departments in the Philippines government to develop and fund rigorous evidence useful for policymakers. We also support capacity-building activities for Philippine researchers and support the impact evaluation management framework of the National Economic and Development Authority.

Working in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister, the primary aim is to improve developmental outcomes through evidence-informed decision making in Uganda. 3ie is currently supporting evaluation of government programmes around youth livelihood, family planning, public service delivery and local governance, and universal primary education.

3ie and the government of Benin are working on a a multi-year regional initiative that aims to promote the institutionalization of evaluation in government systems across eight countries in West Africa, including: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

This is a five-year programme (2019-23) that is working on increasing the use of evidence by policymakers in Ghana, Pakistan and Uganda. In partnership with country governments, this programme aims to develop capacity and promote innovation in increasing evidence-informed decision-making. SEDI is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Funding
- Open opportunities
View our current funding opportunities for evaluations, systematic reviews and internal replication studies.

Evidence impact

evidence impact

3ie specialises in increasing access to, demand for and use of evidence by governments, parliaments, programme managers, civil society, programme participants and the media. We do this by emphasising the value of planning and engaging with stakeholders to ensure that evaluations and reviews are relevant and useful. We use robust and effective monitoring to measure evidence use so that we can convey evidence impact on programmes and policies with greater confidence.

Read how 3ie measures and classifies evidence impact.

Spotlight

3ie's evidence impact summaries portal

Evidence use is a priority in delivering development effectiveness, in a similar way that promoting better and more relevant evidence is. 3ie's new evidence impact summaries portal showcases how 3ie-supported evidence has informed and influenced decision makers and the factors that contribute to evidence impact.

Read our latest blogs on evidence impact.

Ensuring relevance

We design and manage each of our evidence programmes in partnership with key stakeholders. As a research funder, we understand the role researchers can play in promoting understanding, accessibility and the value of the evidence they produce.

We require direct, early and ongoing engagement between researchers and users through an explicit stakeholder engagement and uptake plan (for impact evaluations and systematic reviews), for which we provide technical support and feedback through discussions with the teams and their regular reporting.

The 3ie stakeholder engagement and evidence uptake plan is a very important approach for ensuring that the policymakers and other relevant stakeholders who are the ultimate users of the findings of the study are engaged right from the beginning of the evaluation study, rather than waiting till the end of the project.

A researcher on an impact evaluation grant supported through 3ie’s Development Priorities Evidence Programme

Strengthening capacity to increase evidence use

We work with our global network of 3ie members and through strategic partnerships regionally and nationally to develop and embed evaluation, synthesis and evidence use capacities of individuals, institutions and national monitoring and evaluation systems.

We share our knowledge on promoting evidence use, as well as monitoring and measuring it in a number of important ways. In Africa, we work with government partners in Uganda and in the West African region to deliver specific capacity development programmes to improve evidence use in decision-making. We are partnering with a number of key specialists to improve and harmonise monitoring and evaluation training and education. We share our knowledge through the Africa Evidence Network and the Global Evaluation Synthesis Initiative, as well as through bespoke and conference-related skills-building events.

To know more about what we are doing to strengthen capacity to produce and use evidence, click here.

Monitoring and measuring

We have been pioneering how to monitor and measure evidence uptake and use for more than five years. We know what improves the chances evidence will be relevant and likely to be used. Through consultation with our researchers and learning together, we understand what is most appropriate to expect researchers to do in terms of promoting evidence use. Importantly, we have learned a lot about what a funder can and cannot effectively do to promote evidence use in studies that we fund.

Using our specialised approach to monitoring of engagement and uptake, we have now documented more than 170 instances of how evidence from over 100 3ie-supported studies has been used. Our monitoring shows seven ways in which research findings can have an impact. We list them here alphabetically since we do not value one type over another: (1) Change policies or programmes, (2) Close a programme, (3) Improve the culture of evidence use, (4) Inform discussions of policies and programmes, (5) Inform global guidelines and policy discussions, (6) Inform the design of other programmes, and (7) Scale up a programme.

We have focused our innovation and learning on how to improve evidence use measurement. We have tried a number of different approaches to monitoring, validating and coming up with cost-effective and timely methods that works for our needs. In 2018, we adopted contribution tracing for testing and improving our evidence use claims. This method has helped strengthen our monitoring, as well as our confidence in what we are measuring and reporting.

Evidence use and impact publications

We are publishing what we are learning about evidence use. Our evidence use and impact briefs describe the mechanisms and pathways that have contributed to evidence use that has had a measurable impact.