Mark Engelbert

mark
Designation: Senior Evaluation Specialist & Leader, Development Evidence Portal
Mark manages 3ie’s Development Evidence Portal and supports the production of systematic reviews and evidence gap maps in a variety of topics, with emphasis on agriculture and immunisation.

Blogs by author

Unveiling trends in impact evaluations across Sub-Saharan Africa

With 4262 studies, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest number of impact evaluations in the Development Evidence Portal (DEP). The second blog in our 'state of the evidence' series that previously featured Latin America and the Caribbean unpacks the evidence coming from this part of the African continent. The DEP – which remains a global public good – allows us to analyze which countries, interventions and outcomes are the most researched, by whom and in what way.

3ie's living Food Systems Evidence and Gap Map: Slow progress on evidence gaps, but little high-quality synthesis

In our most recent update to our living Evidence and Gap Map (E&GM) on Food Systems, we see the continuation of several trends: more evaluations of national and transnational programs; fewer evaluations of supplementation and fortification interventions; a shift toward quasi-experimental research; and a dearth of high-quality systematic reviews.

Unveiling trends in impact evaluations across Latin America and the Caribbean

3ie’s Development Evidence Portal (DEP) team is writing a series of blogs designed to provide insights and explore regional trends from the data housed within the world’s largest repository for rigorous international development evaluations. Our first destination in this series is Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a region ranking third in terms of the number of impact evaluations (IEs) with 1910. Here we provide a brief overview of the region, and we encourage interested users to utilize the DEP to do your own explorations.

What works to reverse democratic backsliding? It’s complicated

Many countries have faced democratic backsliding or autocratization, especially in the past 30 years. With a staggering 72 percent of the world population living in autocracies (according to the V-Dem 2023 report), we need more evidence to better understand what works to support democracy and freedom in backsliding contexts to reverse this trend. To support this effort towards evidence-informed decision-making in democracy programming, 3ie has gathered existing findings in an evidence gap map and rapid evidence assessment (REA), with support from the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Strengthening democracy and freedom in backsliding contexts: mapping and synthesizing the evidence

In recent years, international observers such as the V-Dem Institute have highlighted an alarming crisis of democracy with a decline in competitive elections, political participation and public accountability. For the first time in two decades, the Institute’s 2023 Democracy Report found more closed autocracies than liberal democracies in the world.