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February 2016   Making Evidence matter
New funding opportunities
Policy Window:
3ie launched a new call for applications for a proposal preparation grant for an impact evaluation of a social protection programme implemented by the government of Maldives. Deadline: 23 February. Click here for more information on this funding.

Matchmaking workshop on agricultural risk mitigation:
3ie is inviting expressions of interest from researchers and implementers to participate in a matchmaking workshop to be held in Nairobi, Kenya on 19-20 April. Deadline: 23 February. Click here for more information.
Grant award updates
Thematic Window 2, HIV Self-testing
Two of the four HIV self-testing grants for Uganda and Zambia have been signed. The grantees are Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, US for a study in Zambia and the Makerere University School of Public Health for a study in Uganda.

Thematic Window 6, Humanitarian assistance
Two impact evaluation grants have been signed. One is of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) treatment and prevention programmes in Sudan, which was awarded to Valid International, UK. The other one is of the WFP’s targeting of MAM in humanitarian situations in Chad, which was awarded to DARA International, Spain.
New 3ie members and associate members
New members: Ministry of Public Health, Government of Cameroon; the National Economic and Development Authority, Government of the Philippines; the General Directorate of Planning and Poverty Alleviation, Ministry of State, Ministry of Planning and Development, Côte d’Ivoire; the General Directorate of Planning, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Government of Guinea-Bissau; the High Commission for State Modernisation (Haut commissariat pour la modernisation de l’état) in Niger; and the National Technical Secretariat, Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Economy and Finance of Burkina Faso.
New associate members: Environmental-Economics Policy Research Unit in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa; World Agroforestry Centre, Kenya; Water Resources Management Group, the Netherlands; Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation, the Netherlands; Chair of Development Economics, University of Passau, Germany; The Cloudburst Group, US; École de santé publique de l'Université de Montréal (University of Montreal School of Public Health, Canada; and the Public Health Foundation of India, India; Initiative for Evidence-Based Development and Empowerment, Nigeria; Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway; and Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California, US.
Evidence uptake and use from 3ie-funded studies
Integrating successful experiments into programming
The government of Colombia is upgrading its early childhood development centres, known as the Hogares Infantiles, by providing additional resources in the form of better and more qualified personnel, richer pedagogical curriculum, more nutritious food and improved physical facilities. The Institute for Fiscal Studies is collaborating with the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, the government agency in charge of implementing the programme, to study the impact and cost effectiveness of the upgraded centres. The study team was recently invited by the government to help with a new initiative to evaluate the short-term impacts of the National Early Childhood Strategy using the Colombian National Household Survey.
3ie at events
Delhi seminar on women’s empowerment, 14 January 2016: Thomas De Hoop, senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research spoke about the systematic review he co-authored, The Effects of Economic Self-Help Group Programs on Women’s Empowerment: A Systematic Review. Watch the video of the seminar here.

Delhi seminar on the Social Observatory, 1 February, 2016:In his talk on 1 February, Dr Vijayendra Rao, the lead economist, The World Bank, and a lead researcher with the Social Observatory demonstrated a new method of peer tracking that allows communities to generate census data with which they can monitor their own progress, make better allocation decisions and provide a source of information to engage with the government to improve public services.

London seminar series:3ie’s London office hosted a seminar on ‘Metrics’ by Steve Pischke, London School of Economics and Political Science, on 28 January. Pischke, the author of the popular economics textbook Mostly Harmless Econometrics, talked about the different ways in which econometricians identify causal relationships in the absence of randomised assignment.

Please click here to know more about 3ie-sponsored seminars, conferences and other events.
New 3ie publications
3ie Impact Evaluation Report 40: Micro entrepreneurship support programme in Chile.
This study by Martinez et al, used a randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a large-scale micro entrepreneurship support programme in Chile. The study found that the programme significantly increased employment by 15.3 percentage points in the short run (mostly through self-employment) and 6.8 percentage points in the long run (mostly through wage work). Read this report here
3ie Impact Evaluation Report 39, 2016-Thirty-five years later: Evaluating the impacts of a child health and family planning programme in Bangladesh
This study by Barham et al, examined the long-term impact of the Matlab Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning Programme in Bangladesh that began in 1977. Thirty-five years after it began, the study looked at two key measures of human capital: height and cognitive functioning. The findings showed that the programme led to important and sustained effects on a person’s height through adulthood. There were important effects on cognitive functioning through late childhood that did not persist through adulthood. Read this report here here
3ie Replication Paper 10, 2015: Fighting corruption does improve schooling: a replication study of a newspaper campaign in Uganda.
In the pure replication, Kuecken and Valfort confirm that the newspaper campaign reduced the capture of capitation grants and improved enrolment. The replication researchers found that the intervention influenced enrolments only when they use a more accurate enrolment measure introduced by Reinikka and Svensson (2011). They also identified differences from the original paper in the relationship between capture due to the newspaper campaign and improved learning outcomes. Read more about this paper here.
Interventions to Improve the Labour Market Situation of Adults with Physical and/or Sensory Disabilities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review by Janice Tripney, Alan Roulstone, Nina Hogrebe, Carol Vigurs, Elena Schmidt, Ruth Stewart

Community-Based Rehabilitation for People With Disabilities in Low- and Middle-income Countries: A Systematic Review by Valentina Iemmi, Lorna Gibson, Karl Blanchet, Suresh Kumar, Santosh Rath, Sally Hartley, GVS Murthy, Vikram Patel, Joerg Weber, Hannah Kuper ;

The Effects of Economic Self-Help Group Programs on Women’s Empowerment: A Systematic Review by Carinne Brody, Thomas de Hoop, Martina Vojtkova, Ruby Warnock, Megan Dunbar, Padmini Murthy, Shari Dworkin

The Effects of Training, Innovation and New Technology on African Smallholder Farmers’ Wealth and Food Security: A Systematic Review by Ruth Stewart, Laurenz Langer, Natalie Rebelo Da Silva, Evans Muchiri, Hazel Zaranyika, Yvonne Erasmus, Nicola Randall, Shannon Rafferty, Marcel Korth, Nolizwe Madinga, Thea de Wet

The Impacts of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises on Firm Performance in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review by Caio Piza, Tulio Antonio Cravo, Linnet Taylor, Lauro Gonzalez, Isabel Musse, Isabela Furtado, Ana C. Sierra, Samer Abdelnour

Preventive Interventions to Reduce Youth Gang Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review by Angela Higginson, Kathryn Ham Benier, Yulia Shenderovich, Laura Bedford, Lorraine Mazerolle, Joseph Murray

The identification and measurement of health - related spillovers in impact evaluations: a systematic review by Jade Benjamin-Chung, Benjamin F. Arnold, Jaynal Abedin, Lauren Falcao, Ashley E. Clark, Eugene Konagaya, Steve P. Luby, Edward Miguel, John M. Colford, Jr.
New peer reviewed publications from 3ie-funded research
Muñoz, D, Llamas, L and Bosch-Capblanch, X, 2015. Exposing concerns about vaccination in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review, International Journal of Public Health, 60:767–780
Useful resources
3ie How-To Videos 3: How to manage a randomised evaluation: Managing a randomised evaluation requires addressing several challenges on the ground. In this video, Howard White explores specific issues such as the need for securing the buy-in of key stakeholders, ensuring realistic timelines and overcoming opposition to randomisation. Click here to watch the video.  
3ie in the news
  • 3ie was cited in a World Bank blog by Markus Goldenstein. The blog, What’s wrong with how we do impact evaluation?, cites 3ie’s working paper 25, Evaluations with impact: decision-focused impact evaluation as a practical policymaking tool.
  • An editorial in the International Journal of Epidemiology recognised 3ie for its work in funding and facilitating replication research.
  • 3ie has been quoted in the Reed report, The Economics of the Big Cut, which references the work of Prof Nick Wilson and Willa Friedman from the University of Houston on testing different approaches to encourage men to get circumcised. Read more
  • 3ie Working Paper, The Future of Impact Evaluations was cited in the CGD blog by Lant Pritchett in the IDinsight website.
  • 3ie’s blog on how a focused thematic window can meet multiple evidence needs has been featured in the Africa Evidence Network newsletter in December 2015.
  • A chapter written by 3ie evaluation specialist, Tara Kaul, Changes and State-wise Differences in the Nutritional Impact of the Indian Public Distribution System, was published in the book, Undernutrition and Public Policy in India. This book assesses the status and causes of undernutrition in the India and examines the effectiveness of policies designed to address undernutrition.
New blog posts
Private outcomes and the public interest: a call for more impact evaluations? 3ie’s executive director, Emmanuel Jimenez, discusses the need for social impact evaluations. He also points out the challenges in taking them up more extensively, including ensuring internal consistency of results and challenging time frames. Read this blog and other recent ones here.

Miles before we sleep: building evidence on forest conservation Jyotsna Puri and Megha Nath explain why the world has lost 129 million hectares of forest cover (almost the size of South Africa) in the past decade and the fact that few existing impact evaluations provide important pointers on what helps to reduce deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. Despite many global initiatives, very little is known about strategies that can help preserve forests, even while they continue to provide livelihood benefits. Read this blog and other recent ones here.

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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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