Heather Lanthorn

Heather coordinated the review and quality assurance process for grants funded under 3ie’s Social Protection Thematic Window, Open Window and Policy Window modalities.

Blogs by author

Proof-of-concept evaluations: Building evidence for effective scale-ups

I delivered a talk at 3ie’s Delhi Seminar Series on a recently published PLoS ONE paper) and follow-up research. This project was a randomised experiment evaluating the potential for text messages to remind malaria patients to complete their treatment course of antimalarial medication.

Making impact evidence matter for people’s welfare

The plenary session at the Making Impact Evaluation Matter conference in Manila made clear that impact evidence – in the form of single evaluations and syntheses of rigorous evidence – do indeed matter. Two key themes were (1) strong evidence about the causal effects of programmes and policies matter to making decisions that improve the welfare of people living in low- and middle-income countries and (2) that, to make impact evaluation matter more, we need to continue to make efforts to build capacity to generate, understand, and use such evidence in those same countries.

Early engagement improves REDD+ and early warning system design and proposals

At 3ie, our mission is to fund the generation and sharing of sound, useful evidence on the impacts of development programmes and policies work. Actually, we’re more curious (or nosy) than that. For impact evaluation that matters, we need to know which bits of a programme worked, which didn’t, why and through which mechanisms, in which contexts and for what costs.

Gearing up for Making Impact Evaluation Matter

Over the last week, 3ie staff in Delhi, London and Washington were busy coordinating conference logistics, finalising the conference programme, figuring out how to balance 3ie publications and clothing in their suitcases, and putting the last touches to their presentations. This is usual conference preparation for a conference that is going to be different. Why is this conference different? The participant mix – more than 500 people – is balanced among policymakers, programme managers and implementers, and researchers.

Opening a window on climate change and disaster risk reduction

Nature has provided us some stark recent reminders that our climate is changing, often towards the extremes. Super Typhoon Haiyan slammed the Philippines. The ‘polar vortex’ blanketed the United States in snow. While East Coasters in the United States may still feel some of the polar sting, it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable that feel the sustained harms of climate change.