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In a response to the recent pieces by Todd Moss and Dean Karlan on the relevance and effectiveness of Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) studies, this 3ie blog argues that the real problem is not the disagreement itself, but that both sides are fighting over the wrong thing. Moss wants to relitigate whether the randomization revolution was worth it. Karlan wants to defend it. And the question that actually matters - how do you generate credible, actionable evidence about complex development problems? - is left practically unaddressed.
This piece reclaims that question and is a timely intervention for anyone who has found the RCT wars more heat than light. Read the blog
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Featured
Addressing irregular migration: Insights from 3ie's latest evidence synthesis
Irregular migration is a high-stakes policy challenge — and one where enormous sums are being spent without clear evidence on what actually works. 3ie has updated its Evidence Gap Map on interventions addressing the root causes and drivers of irregular migration, now covering 105 impact evaluations and 7 systematic reviews through 2025. To accompany the map, four new evidence summaries distil the available evidence across information campaigns, legal migration pathways, external migration management, and human capital strengthening. A consistent finding across all four areas: cost and cost-effectiveness evidence is almost entirely absent — a critical gap for policymakers making high-value investment decisions in this space.
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Read the summaries below| | 📋 Information campaigns Campaigns can raise awareness of migration risks but have only a small effect on intentions to migrate irregularly and little to no effect on actual migration behaviour. Read the summary → | | 🕳 Legal migration pathways Temporary work visas and labour agreements can generate substantial increases in regular migration flows among eligible populations by lowering legal, financial, and administrative barriers, but effects vary significantly by context, income differentials, and migrants' awareness of available pathways. Read the summary → | | 🌐 External migration management Policies such as the EU–Turkey Statement and Italy–Libya cooperation appear to divert migration routes and timing rather than reduce overall irregular flows, with heterogeneous effects across migrant groups. Read the summary → | | 💡 Human capital strengthening Cash transfers, health insurance, and livelihood support show promise in reducing distress-driven migration in crisis contexts. The evidence base has several limitations, including: reliance on intention-based or proxy migration measures rather than realized mobility; short follow-up periods; and a near-absence of cost or value-for-money evidence. Read the summary → | | |
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Featured | The missing middle: why connecting evidence systems to decision systems is key
The development sector has never had more evidence. Yet it consistently fails to reach the decisions that matter most. In her latest blog, 3ie's Executive Director argues that the problem is not a shortage of evidence but a "missing middle" — the translation, synthesis, brokerage, and interpretation that connects evidence to actual decisions. Three observations frame the challenge: different decisions require different evidence types; evidence use requires deliberate institutional investment (the TRIPS framework — Training, Resources, Incentives, Processes, Signals — offers a practical roadmap); and outcomes will only be taken seriously when the incentives of the wider development finance system reflect them. A timely read for anyone working at the intersection of evidence, institutions, and impact.
Read the blog |
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Featured | World Rural Development Day: Women's empowerment at the heart of rural transformation
Rural development is most effective when women have the opportunity, confidence and support to participate fully in shaping their households, livelihoods and communities. As the world marked World Rural Development Day on 6 July, 3ie's long-standing partnership with India's Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) demonstrates how rigorous evidence can help strengthen one of the world's largest rural poverty reduction programs. Over more than a decade, 3ie has worked alongside the MoRD, with support from the Gates Foundation and the World Bank, to generate evidence that informs the evolution of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) and its enhanced phase, the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP).
Our latest impact evaluation, based on data from approximately 23,000 households across nine states, provides robust evidence on how investing in women's self-help groups and community institutions can accelerate rural transformation.
Key findings - Women's empowerment drives broader development outcomes. Participation in self-help groups strengthened women's decision-making, leadership and economic participation, reinforcing the central role women play in rural development.
- A phased approach delivers results. The evaluation found that combining the institutional platform created by DAY-NRLM with the targeted economic interventions introduced through NRETP generated significant gains in household livelihoods and income, with strong community institutions underpinning sustained impacts.
- Evidence is informing policy. Findings from 3ie's research have been used by the MoRD to guide program implementation and discussions on subsequent phases of DAY-NRLM, illustrating the value of embedding evidence within policymaking.
Read impact evaluation report | Read impact evaluation brief | More about this work |
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Call for papers | Special issue on Rapid and Responsive Evidence Synthesis for Sustainable Development
We are inviting contributions for the special issue of the Journal of Development Effectiveness that aims to explore the full range of innovations, technological, methodological, and relational, that are reshaping evidence synthesis in development policy and practice. We define "rapid and responsive" not merely as a matter of speed, but as a broader commitment to synthesizing evidence in ways that are better calibrated to the rhythms of decision-making across governments, donors, philanthropies, and implementing organizations working toward sustainable development.
Contributors are encouraged to engage critically with the opportunities and trade-offs presented by a range of approaches — including living systematic reviews, automated screening tools, machine learning-assisted data extraction, stakeholder-engaged and co-produced synthesis, AI-assisted evidence mapping, and related innovations.
To know more about the themes and scope, visit the webpage here.
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026
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The State of Development Journals and JDEff’s consistent performance
The annual stocktake of development economics journals — by David McKenzie on World Bank Blogs — offers a useful barometer of where the field is heading. The headline finding from the 2026 edition is volume: total submissions across the 12 tracked journals reached 16,767 papers, a 34% increase on the previous year and a 59% increase on 2022. In 2025, 937 papers were published across the tracked journals. By 2026, that figure had risen to 1,147 — a 22% increase in a single year. 3ie’s Journal of Development Effectiveness (JDEff) also witnessed a higher number of submissions – with a 41% increase over last year. Consequently, the number of published articles for the year also rose by 21%. JDEff has consistently published around 25 papers annually. The journal is taking a broader interpretation of "development effectiveness" to encourage submissions beyond traditional impact evaluations. |
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Evidence Dialogues series – What works for investing smarter in Climate Action
Over May, June, and July, 3ie and What Works Climate Solutions convened a three-part Evidence Dialogues series to take honest stock of where the climate evidence field stands and what it will take to do better. The sessions featured researchers, evaluators, funders, and practitioners who examined the state of climate evidence, the structural barriers to building a stronger evidence ecosystem, and what embedding evidence in climate decision-making actually requires. Speakers explored practical strategies through collective efforts for embedding evidence in climate investment decisions by governments, multilaterals, bilaterals, funding agencies and implementing organizations.
Access webinar recordings and resources from the sessions here. |
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Join our growing and dynamic team by applying for one of these unique and impactful roles. View all the current opportunities here. |
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Featured
Senior Research Fellow
 3ie’s Senior Research Fellows Program includes experts from various sectors – including development, evaluation, policy as well as academia. This month, we feature Professor Vegard Iversen, whose research spans the use of modern impact evaluation techniques, mixed methods, behavioural experiments, archival work and the occasional sociological/anthropological detour. He has extensive fieldwork, survey management and data collection experience. His current research focuses on e.g. social mobility in developing countries (with UNU-WIDER); women (and other) politicians; caste and inequality; social audits; the agricultural productivity, poverty and other impacts of large dams; the impact of aquaculture interventions on smallholder income, nutrition and women’s empowerment in Bangladesh (with 3ie). Read moreSince 2020, 3ie's Fellowship Program has contributed to achieving our mission by tapping into diverse expertise and experience across the world. |
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