Initiatives to support impact evaluation

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Initiatives to support impact evaluation

• Howard White, IEG, World Bank
• Nick York, DFID

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World Bank

• IEG
• Current program of 1-2 studies a year, initially
  supported by DFID (
• Three completed so far, 3 underway
• Aim is to provide policy-relevant rigorous
  studies
• DIME (Development Impact Evaluation)
• Research department (DEC) initiative to provide
  support to IE by operations
• Provides technical support and some seed money,
  main costs of study to be part of the loan.
  Workshops are held on evaluation design for
  projects entering the program. (There is a
  separate weekly IE seminar series).
• Plan to have meta-analyses current areas of
  focus are conditional cash transfers, urban
  upgrading, early child development and education
  service delivery
• Currently 122 studies are being supported by this
  initiative and a further 55 in the planning
  stage. Just over half of them (69) are
  experimental, the rest quasi-experimental

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World Bank resources

• IEG IE site
• Studies
• Booklets (Bamberger and White)
• DEC IE site
• Database (111 studies)
• Working papers
• Methods documents
• Consultant database (for Bank staff only)

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CGD and the Leading Edge group

• Evaluation Gap report When will we ever learn?
  argued very few studies assessing if aid programs
  actually make a difference
• Bellagio conference obtained funding commitments
  from Foundations and bilateral agencies
• Leading Edge group
• Support for rigorous impact evaluation for social
  sector interventions
• Encouraging developing country participation and
  ownership
• Want complementarity with network of networks
  (us)
• Will start commissioning mid-next year, aiming to
  support up to 30 studies a year