Can local peacebuilding work? Promising evidence from two new studies

Paul Thissen, Catlan Reardon 21 November 2025 blog  

Is it possible to reduce violent conflict at a local level through peacebuilding projects? If so, what kind of interventions are effective in doing so? Two recent studies from Nigeria and Sudan suggest that training local leaders and committees in dispute resolution can effectively reduce conflict.

Launching an evidence gap map on the learning-to-earning transition: A call for papers

Cem Yavuz 07 November 2025 blog  

As 2025 comes to a close, global NEET (not in education, employment, or training) rates continue to be a pressing issue. According to ILO estimates, this constitutes 25% of the world’s population in the 15-24 age group. Young women are especially impacted, with rates twice those of young men, and while this is a global issue, the figures for low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs) are more than double their high-income counterparts. 

Community resource persons—driving rural livelihoods transformation in India

Tamanud Ghosh 05 November 2025 blog  

India’s rural development journey has been shaped by decades of innovation, adaptation, and community-led action. From the Community Development Programme of the 1950s to the emergence of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in the 1990s, successive initiatives have aimed to empower rural households, strengthen their livelihoods, and drive financial inclusion.

What does evidence-informed policymaking look like? A framework for conceptualising and measuring EIPM

Christine Kelly, Suvarna Pande, Lucas Sempé, Shannon Shisler, Leandro Echt, Nasreen S Jessani, Humayra Binte Anwar, Ashiqun Nabi 05 November 2025 blog  

The past two decades have seen a proliferation of activity supporting evidence-informed policymaking (EIPM) in low- and middle-income countries. Investments in research infrastructure, technical capacity, and relationships between researchers and policymakers have developed markedly, alongside a growing discourse emphasising the importance of EIPM for efficient and transparent governance. 

China’s explosion of impact evaluations: what it means for the global evidence base

Mark Engelbert, Howard White 30 October 2025 blog  

Our latest blog in our series on regional trends in impact evaluation research takes a slightly different tack. Instead of surveying a region, we focus on a single country: China. China has emerged as a major hub for impact evaluation (IE) research in recent years. With China recently hosting the tenth Asia Evaluation Week, we thought it made sense to look at its evidence landscape in depth. Another blog will examine East Asia more broadly.

Ethics advances at JDEff for our peacebuilding special issue and beyond

Paul Thissen, Audrey Portes, Sudhanshu Handa, Marie Gaarder 14 October 2025 blog  

Ethical considerations should remain at the forefront of researchers’ minds when conducting evaluations of development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding interventions. To make sure that authors for the Journal of Development Effectiveness (JDEff) take their ethical obligations seriously, the journal has added a new ethics-focused step in the publication process. These new ethical considerations will apply to the journal’s upcoming special issue on peacebuilding – more on that below – and beyond.

Closing the gaps: Building evidence on irregular migration

Sanghwa Lee, Maria Daniela Anda Leon, Shannon Shisler, Anil Thota 14 October 2025 blog  
We have just published our new inception report (protocol) for updating and expanding 3ie’s evidence gap map (EGM) on interventions addressing root causes and other drivers of irregular migration. Our new inception report sets out our approach—from defining the scope of interventions and outcomes to the systematic methods we will use—and how we will synthesize evidence. Please share any relevant studies with us (here) to help make our updated evidence gap map as comprehensive as possible.

Learning on the go: Building and testing our Gen AI-based evidence assistant

Fiona Kastel, Devika Lakhote, Sanchi Lokhande, Saqib Masood, Geetika Pandya 09 October 2025 blog  

Each year, more than $200 billion is invested in life-saving policies and programs globally. Ensuring these resources deliver maximum impact depends on decision-makers having timely access to high-quality, relevant and actionable evidence. Yet too often, this evidence remains scattered, hard to interpret, or unavailable when it is most needed.

When the things “everyone knows” turn out to be wrong

Marie Gaarder 07 October 2025 blog  

I still remember my early days as a fresh PhD economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. My job was to help design health and social programs across Latin America. I arrived eager, idealistic, and armed with economic theory. I quickly noticed something: everyone—government officials, colleagues, even myself—had strong views about what the “right” structure of a program should be. If you wanted to reduce the incidence of child malnutrition, you gave out food. If you wanted more women to work, you subsidized childcare.

Beyond names and numbers - understanding data de-identification

Chandan Jain, Anagha Mariya Jose 25 September 2025 blog  

Social science research often involves collecting data through direct interactions with individuals, households, and communities. This data generally includes detailed personal and sensitive information. Additionally, data may be collected from marginalized and vulnerable communities, including those with a limited understanding of their rights as data subjects. Sensitive personal data intended for statistical analysis can be misused or cause harm to households and communities.