These briefs provide plain-language summaries of the intervention, impact evaluation, main findings and recommendations from 3ie-funded studies published in our report series.
A disproportionate number of girls remain out of schools in many developing countries. Evidence shows there is a need for ‘gender-targeted’ programs. Such targeted programs may be financial incentives - which a number have studies have found to be effective - or female-friendly schools, for which the evidence base is weak
Contaminated water is bad for health, resulting in thousands of premature deaths around the world each year. There is strong evidence that household water treatment has the biggest impact and is the most costeffective method in reducing risks of diarrhoea.
Most assessments have found that public works programmes have significant impact in terms of temporary employment creation and increases in participants’ current incomes. However, evidence of impact on enhanced employability, sustainable income gains, and the benefits to poor people from the physical assets created is limited.
There is a lack of credible data on children with disabilities in developing nations, presenting an obstacle for rigorous research evaluation of policy interventions.
Few rigorous impact evaluations are available. While assessments of the broad range of interventions find indoor air pollution is reduced, there is less evidence on how these affect health outcomes and which interventions are most cost-effective.
Monitoring and financial incentives have been shown to have a significant impact on absenteeism, whereas local monitoring of attendance has failed to have such an impact. However, more evidence is required to strengthen these conclusions.
Existing evidence: School feeding leads to better educational outcomes, though results are more positive for school enrolment and attendance than for cognitive performance.
