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December 2016   Making Evidence matter
Evidence uptake and use from 3ie-funded studies
Evidence from 3ie-funded studies cited in WHO guidelines: On 28 November, WHO released a supplement to its 2015 guidelines on HIV self-testing and partner notification to improve access to and uptake of HIV diagnosis. The updated guidelines cite new evidence, including some from 3ie-funded studies, which recommend including HIV self-testing as an additional testing option to be integrated into country strategies. Of the five studies referenced in the supplement, two were 3ie-funded pilot interventions in Kenya. 3ie-funded impact evaluations in Kenya were the only evidence included from low-income countries.

3ie systematic review on the effectiveness of education programmes informs the design of a global NGO's programmes: Pencils of Promise (PoP), a global NGO working on building schools and providing quality educational programming to increase literacy rates in Ghana, Guatemala, Laos and Nicaragua, has shown keen interest in the findings of 3ie’s education effectiveness systematic review (EER), particularly those on community-based monitoring, diagnostic feedback and teacher incentives. PoP plans to use these findings to inform their programming decisions when implementing similar programmes.
3ie education review launched in Paris, Washington, New York and New Delhi
After the successful initial launch of our education effectiveness review in London on 27 September, 3ie launched the review in other major cities by organising or joining discussions, debates or panels. In 2017, 3ie plans on organising and participating in more events to promote the use of this evidence to improve education programmes and policies. Watch this space.

How well do education interventions work? UNESCO Paris, 20 October: 3ie joined a seminar organised by the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) to launch the review in front of this important audience, including IIEP staff and those from the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring unit and other experts. There were more than 40 researchers and practitioners from these units. Richard Manning, 3ie board chair and 3ie’s Birte Snilstveit, lead author of the study, presented the findings. The main discussant Aaron Benavot, UNESCO's GEM report director, said that the EER findings will be useful in informing their work on future GEM reports. He also acknowledged the value of the review’s theoretical framework, high level of methodological rigour and its mixed methods approach. Click here to watch the video of this seminar.

Improving children's learning and school participation in developing countries: what works? Washington, DC, 3 November and New York, 4 November: Emmanuel (Manny) Jimenez presented the findings of our education effectiveness review at a seminar that 3ie jointly organised with the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) on the value of this review for informing policies and strategies to achieve quality education for all. The World Bank’s Marie Gaarder moderated the panel discussion; the panellists included Deon Filmer, co-director of the upcoming World Bank Development Report 2018, which will be on education, Jean-Marc Bernard (Global Partnership for Education), Marcia Davidson (USAID) and Justin Sandefur (Center for Global Development). There was general consensus that education programmes need to adopt a more flexible approach and integrate more learning components. Manny Jimenez also presented the review findings at a webinar hosted by the UN Evaluation Group, where the focus was on the major lessons learned and implications of the findings for education policies and programming. Manny used examples from the review to highlight its relevance in policymaking for governments and international agencies working to meet the education SDG.

Education for all, 3ie Delhi Evidence Week, 6 November: 3ie also presented the findings to policymakers, programme managers and education-sector specialists, as part of 3ie Delhi Evidence Week 2016 (DEW). This seminar was co-hosted by 3ie and J-PAL. Panellists discussed various political economy challenges of achieving education for all, especially in the Indian context. Speakers included Atishi Marlena (Delhi government advisor), Ashish Dhawan (Central Square Foundation), Kiran Bhatty (Centre for Policy Research), Pranav Kothari (Education Initiatives) and Rukmini Banerjee (Pratham). While there was general consensus that a great deal of progress has been achieved in the last decade, panellists discussed the need for evidence that factored in political and practical considerations of the local context. They also discussed the dearth of qualitative work in this sector and how systematic review evidence could be used to improve education policies and programmes.

Other highlights from DEW 2016: 3ie’s DEW events got off to a great start with a public lecture by Michael Woolcock (lead World Bank social development specialist). He spoke about finding more effective ways to use evaluation to assess both the internal and external validity of complex interventions. He also stressed how currently preferred impact evaluation methods were often inadequate to address the complexities of local contexts, especially in sanitation. Watch Michael Woolcock’s public lecture here.

3ie also organised a one-day conference, Sanitation for all, with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. Several panels focused on discussions about how high-quality evaluation evidence can be used to address challenges in India’s sanitation and hygiene sector. There were discussions on how to work on generating evidence relevant to policymakers, instead of seeking policymakers to work with the existing evidence. Panellists also talked about the need for gender equity and focus on gender issues in sanitation, and cautioned that evidence, when gender blind in design, planning, process analysis and use, perpetuated inequality.

DEW also showcased a few 3ie-supported impact evaluations on rural livelihoods, nutrition and health in Bihar. 3ie also presented its ongoing evidence mapping and impact evaluation in collaboration with the national and state livelihoods missions in India.
New 3ie publications
Impact evaluation reports: Optimising the use of economic interventions to increase demand for voluntary medical male circumcision in Kenya; Assessing the impact of delivering messages through intimate partners to create demand for voluntary medical male circumcision in Uganda; Measuring the impact of SMS-based interventions on uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision in Zambia; Voluntary medical male circumcision uptake through soccer in Zimbabwe; Using smartphone raffles to increase demand for voluntary medical male circumcision in Tanzania; The use of peer referral incentives to increase demand for voluntary medical male circumcision in Zambia; and Using advertisements to create demand for voluntary medical male circumcision in South Africa.

EGM report: Land-use change and forestry programmes: evidence on the effects on greenhouse gas emissions and food security

Systematic reviews: Effects and mechanisms of market-based reforms on access to electricity in developing countries: a systematic review

Briefs based on 3ie-funded systematic reviews: Does community-based rehabilitation improve lives of people with disabilities?; and Measuring spillover matters
3ie peer-reviewed publications
Click here to access a list of the recent peer-reviewed publications of 3ie-funded research.
3ie @events
What have we learned? Improving development policy through impact evaluation, Washington, DC, 6 December: 3ie joined the Center for Global Development (CGD) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) to take stock of the impact evaluation movement and evidence generated, and its promise for improving social policy in developing countries. Policymakers and evaluators on the various panels discussed examples of how evaluation enhanced effectiveness. They focussed on three key messages: recognise that impact evaluations are an important global public good that require more funding, conduct more and better evaluations, connect evaluators and policymakers. Apart from 3ie's Emmanuel Jimenez, other participants included Abhijit Banerjee (MIT), Amanda Glassman (CGD) and Rachel Glennerster. Watch the video here.

3ie-LIDC London seminar, 26 October: Edward Anderson (School of International Development, University of East Anglia) presented on findings from the systematic review What policies and interventions have been strongly associated with changes in in-country income inequality?. The overall aim of this systematic review was to identify and synthesise the empirical evidence on the impact of government policies on income inequality in low- and middle-income countries.

3ie Delhi seminar, 20 October: Shagun Sabarwal, (CLEAR/J-PAL South Asia at IFMR) spoke on The role and interpretation of pilot studies in impact evaluation research, using the example of a recent study done in collaboration with the Government of Punjab, India as a precursor to a full-scale cluster randomised evaluation. The findings from the pilot study informed the theory of change of the intervention and the design of the randomised evaluation. Click here to watch the video.

Member webinar, 18 November: The webinar hosted by 3ie and the International Rescue on 18 November focused on Evidence gap maps: what to consider before commissioning, producing or adapting EGMs. Sixteen representatives from among 3ie members participated in it. Click here to listen to the recorded webinar.
3ie in the news
The findings from 3ie-supported pilot interventions and impact evaluations of these interventions to increase demand for voluntary medical male circumcision, were published in the October edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Emmanuel Jimenez spoke to Businessworld on the role of impact evaluation in assisting policymakers to make better decisions. This piece, Impact evaluation makes good sense, published ahead of DEW, highlights 3ie’s work and the need for evidence-informed policymaking.

3ie received significant media coverage in leading Indian dailies, The Times of India and the Hindustan Times during DEW. Both articles mention the findings of the education review.

WSSCC summarised DEW events and its key messages in this article posted on their website.

Ben Durbin from the National Foundation for Education Research discusses our education review in his blog. He praises the insights offered and conclusions drawn by the review and reiterates that impact evaluations have very little value in isolation.

An article on the Indian government’s Swachh Bharat Mission by 3ie’s Jyotsna Puri and Shaon Lahiri that emphasises the role of behavioural change in promoting latrine use in India was published in Businessworld.
3ie blogs
In this blog, If you want your study included in a systematic review, this is what you should report, the World Bank's David Evans and 3ie's Birte Snilstveit summarise the information researchers need to report on for impact evaluations so as to be more useful and easily included in a systematic review of intervention effects.
Other updates
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3ie is an international grant-making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding and producing high-quality evidence of what works, how, why and at what cost. We believe that better and policy-relevant evidence will make development more effective and improve people’s lives.

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