Scaling up development interventions requires planning from the beginning, 3ie's expert panel says

Even if development projects are highly effective at a small scale, many are abandoned before they can have the type of large-scale impacts needed to alleviate poverty. To learn more about how projects can grow past the pilot phase, nearly 300 people joined 3ie’s expert panel on scaling up interventions, the last of its Virtual Evidence Weeks events.

Cost analyses should be required by donors and get more respect from researchers, 3ie’s expert panel says

There is plenty of interest from policymakers in having cost analyses accompany impact evaluations, as we learned in last week’s Virtual Evidence Weeks panel. Our expert panelists agreed that overcoming these barriers will require pressure from funding organizations.

Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on impact evaluation activities in East Africa

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected virtually every sphere of life across the world, including impact evaluations. To better understand these effects, we conducted a rapid informal survey of evaluation researchers in East Africa via email.

Which ways to improve maternal and newborn health are cost effective?

More than one third of countries in the world – including nearly all of Sub-Saharan Africa – will fail to meet the Sustainable Development Goals’ benchmarks for maternal and newborn health if current trends continue, according to Duke University researchers.

Can transparency and accountability initiatives improve natural resource governance?

Resource-dependent countries often fail to benefit from their natural resource wealth. Countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria have vast quantities of natural resources, yet their per capita incomes are among the lowest in the world.

Addressing the need for timely and reliable evidence in the time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic brings the importance of high-quality, timely and relevant evidence to the fore. Governments all over the world justify radical policies to control and manage the pandemic with reference to evidence.

Cost evidence in development evaluations: Demand is there, but supply is not, 3ie’s expert panel says

Despite the key role of costs in determining which development interventions are implemented, cost analyses have not seen the same rise in prominence in the last decade as impact evaluations.

3ie’s new Development Evidence Portal: Our expert panel walks you through its features

While we’re not yet in a world where finding the best development evidence is as easy as asking Alexa or Siri a question, 3ie’s new Development Evidence Portal gets us one step closer to that goal. The newly revamped repository of development evidence includes powerful search and filtering functions for its 3745 impact evaluations, 730 systematic reviews, and 20 evidence gap maps.

Opportunities, challenges, and strategies for evidence production and use in the COVID era: 3ie’s expert panel weighs in

Evidence is already playing a key role in shaping our responses to COVID-19. But at the same time that the pandemic creates opportunities to broaden evidence use, it also raises numerous challenges for those working to collect, analyse, and synthesize data.

Securing and building peaceful societies: Where is the evidence and where is it missing?

It has been estimated that over 1.8 billion people, close to a quarter of the world’s population, live in fragile contexts (OECD, 2018). Given the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is likely that this number might rapidly increase, with unequal access to health services, decent jobs, and safe housing leading to growing mistrust and social unrest. Interventions that tackle the underlying causes of conflict and fragility – along with immediate responses to the pandemic – are therefore more relevant than ever.