The evidence-to-policy conundrum and how to solve it

Does better evidence lead to better policies and programs? Massive amounts of reliable evidence, drawing on scientifically strong methods, including randomized controlled trials, mixed-methods approaches, and more, have been generated and disseminated in recent decades. A Nobel Prize has been awarded for that pathbreaking work. Yet the impact of that evidence – on what policymakers and program implementers think and do – has been far below expectations, even pitifully tiny according to some accounts. billion people.

Insights from the Development Evidence Portal – the Middle East and North Africa

Our latest piece in the ‘state of the evidence’ series – which interprets data by unpacking the studies in our Development Evidence Portal (DEP) – focuses on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. . The DEP currently includes 740 impact evaluations (IE) and 352 systematic reviews (SR) from the region, which is the second smallest amongst regions containing low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs). Interested readers are encouraged to further explore the DEP for additional data not covered in this blog.

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Latest blogs

What works to help students learn? Teach the teachers. Feed the students

Paul Thissen 21 January 2020 blog

More than half of kids in the world are not meeting minimum proficiency levels in reading or math, even though a majority of them of them are already in school, according to UNESCO. This data shows that the issue discussed in last week's blog post—how to get kids into classrooms— is only one part of the problem.

Group think – taking stock of the evidence on group-based livelihood programmes

Shonar Lala Chinoy, Bidisha Barooah 16 January 2020 blog

Mobilizing the poor in low-income countries into groups to deliver livelihoods interventions has become a favoured approach in the development community to address poverty.

What works to improve school enrollment and attendance? Cash

Paul Thissen 14 January 2020 blog

In 2018, one in six of the world's school-aged children — more than 258 million kids —were not in school, according to UNESCO. And as that data shows, progress in increasing attendance has slowed dramatically, with the proportion of children who do not attend primary school barely budging in the last decade.

Launching a campaign- 2020 hindsight: what works in development?

Marie Gaarder 07 January 2020 blog

Today we are launching, at 3ie, a yearlong social media campaign called ‘2020 Hindsight: What Works in Development.’ For our non-American readership, let me briefly explain where the idiom ‘Hindsight is 20/20’ comes from. 20/20 vision is a term used to express that you can see clearly at 20 feet what should normally be seen at that distance.

External validity: policy demand is there but research needs to boost supply

Jörg Peters, Monica Jain, Marie Gaarder 31 December 2019 blog

A randomised controlled trial (RCT) in a Northern district of Uganda finds that the young adults who receive cash transfers use it to buy more food for their families, football shirts, and airtime for their mobile phones, compared to those in control areas. Would the pattern be the same if young adults in central Uganda are given cash transfers? Would the findings replicate if the cash transfers were given to young women in Senegal? This stylised example points to the crucial question of generalisability of program impacts to other contexts – commonly referred to as external validity.

Sounds good... but what will it cost? Making the case for rigorous costing in impact evaluation research

Marie Gaarder, Liz Brown 11 December 2019 blog

Imagine two government programs—a job training program and a job matching program—that perform equally well in terms of boosting employment outcomes. Now think about which is more cost-effective. If your answer is ‘no idea’ you’re not alone! Most of the time, we don’t have the cost evidence available to discern this important difference.

The tricky business of measuring latrine use: lessons from 3ie’s evidence programme

Radhika Menon 19 November 2019 blog

There has been a fair bit of hoopla around India being declared open defecation free last month. In the media debates, the measurement of India’s open defecation-free status has come under a good deal of scrutiny. Leaving aside the politics of the debate, there remains an important question: how can latrine use be measured rigorously?

Is it possible to combine capacity building with a rapid synthesis response to an evidence request?

Is it possible to combine capacity development with a rapid synthesis response to an evidence request?

Birte Snilstveit, Jennifer Stevenson, Laurenz Langer 12 September 2019 blog

Two of the most important and long standing challenges for evidence synthesis in international development are: 1) The need to provide timely (eg. rapid) responses to demands for evidence to inform decisions; 2) Developing capacity to do high-quality, policy-relevant syntheses, especially in L&MICs. At present these challenges are typically addressed in isolation.

How can a rethink of lessons from field experiments inform future research in transparency, participation and accountability?

Jonathan Fox 29 May 2019 blog

The conference also made us consider the value of using our 3ie blog to extend the audience for the topic and start a conversation around a selected presentation or remarks. We have invited one of the panellists from the ‘Reality Check’ session, Jonathan Fox, to share a version of his remarks as a blog.

Be careful what you wish for: cautionary tales on using single studies to inform policymaking

Emmanuel Jimenez 21 May 2019 blog

For a development evaluator, the holy grail is to have evidence from one’s study be taken up and used in policy or programming decisions that improve people’s lives. It’s not easy. Decisions are based on many factors. The availability of evidence is just one of them. And of course, even when evidence is taken up, it does not mean that it will lead to the right decision.

About

Evidence Matters is 3ie’s blog. It primarily features contributions from staff and board members. Guest blogs are by invitation.

3ie publishes blogs in the form received from the authors. Any errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors. Views expressed are their own and do not represent the opinions of 3ie, its board of commissioners or supporters.