We are very pleased to welcome Emmanuel (Manny) Jimenez as our new executive director. He joined 3ie on 9 February after 30 years at the World Bank Group. He most recently was the director, public sector evaluations in the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group. “I'm excited, humbled and honoured. Excited because 3ie is engaged in one of the most important tasks in development – generating high-quality evidence on what works in international development to improve people's lives. Humbled because Howard White has done an incredible job in leading 3ie to be in the forefront of rigorous evaluation and evidence syntheses and because he has set a high standard for his successor. And honoured because I will be working with such a dedicated and world-class board of commissioners and professional team to fulfil this compelling mission. I'm very much looking forward to contributing through what I've learned in my many years of researching, designing, implementing and evaluating development programmes,” Manny said when he was appointed. Read more

Thematic Window 12, Improving lives of adolescents in South Asia: impact evaluation of UNICEF-IKEA Foundation Regional Adolescents programme in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.Please sign up here to receive the request for qualifications (RFQ).

Thematic Window 11, Sanitation and Hygiene: impact evaluations and systematic reviews of programmes in the hygiene and sanitation sector: Please sign up here to receive the RFQ.

Thematic Window 10, Innovations in Increasing Immunisation Coverage: Impact evaluations of new and existing programmes that use innovative approaches to engage communities to increase immunisation: Please sign up here to receive the request for proposals (RFP).

Policy Window 3: impact evaluation of early childhood health interventions in China: Please sign up here to receive the RFQ.

Policy Window Philippines: impact evaluation of peace and development programmes: Please sign up here to receive the RFQ.

Incentivising tax officers in Pakistan to improve tax revenue collection: A randomised controlled trial of performance-based incentives for tax collectors in Pakistan showed they resulted in higher tax collection through an expanded tax base, with no damage to public perceptions of the Excise and Taxation Department. Encouraged by these results the department has requested the researchers to do a follow-up study to assess the impact of non-monetary incentives, such as merit-based transfer and posting in improving performance. Read more

Effects of decentralised forest management on deforestation and poverty in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review: This review by Cyrus Samii, Laura Paler, Larry Chavis, Parashar Kulkarni and Matthew Lisiecki assesses the evidence on the effects of decentralised forest management (DFM) programmes on conservation and poverty outcomes in developing countries. The study finds that DFM reduces deforestation rates. However, the evidence on effects on welfare is limited. Read more

Effects of payment for environmental services on deforestation and poverty in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review: This review by Cyrus Samii, Laura Paler, Larry Chavis, Parashar Kulkarni and Matthew Lisiecki assesses the evidence on the effects of payment for environmental services (PES) interventions on conservation and poverty outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. The study finds only a moderate positive effect of PES on deforestation rates, suggesting that the programmes are not cost effective. The evidence does not indicate a positive effect on poverty reduction. Read more

3ie evidence gap maps: We have launched evidence gap maps, a tool that provides a graphical display of evidence from systematic reviews and impact evaluations in a given sector or thematic areas, such as education, productive safety nets and water sanitation and hygiene. They highlight gaps in existing evidence base and thus inform strategic research agendas and ensure that resources are spent on studies that really matter. Read more

Unicef impact evaluation methodological briefs: 3ie experts have co-authored a series of impact evaluation methodological briefs which were published by Unicef's Office of Research. The series covers the building blocks of impact evaluation, strategies for causal attribution and different data collection and analysis methods. Read more

New issue of Journal of Development Effectiveness: The latest issue includes a paper on Mitigating seasonal hunger with microfinance in Bangladesh: how does a flexible programme compare with the regular ones? by Shahidur R. Khandker, M. A. Baqui Khalily and Hussain A. Samad and a paper on A checklist to avoid pilot failures: lessons from a set of women’s economic empowerment initiatives by Sara Johansson de Silva, Pierella Paci and Josefina Posadas. Read more

Check out our latest blogs: Evidence gap maps: an innovative tool for seeing what we know and don’t know; What’s wrong with evidence-informed development? part 1; How to peer review replication research; Proof-of-concept evaluations: Building evidence for effective scale-ups; Myths about microcredit and meta-analysis; Demand creation for voluntary medical male circumcision: how can we influence emotional choices? Visit the blog site to view all of our posts.