Spotlight
3ie’s new strategy – message from our Executive Director

Dear colleague,

We seek a world where decisions and policies intended to improve the lives of people are informed by timely and relevant evidence of what works, how, for whom, and at what cost.

As a mission-driven, non-profit organization dedicated to evidence-informed decision-making, we believe there is an ethical imperative that calls on decision-makers across development organizations, governments, and funders to holistically adopt evidence-informed practice and learning. What I wrote in 2010 – in this article in Journal of Development Effectiveness – still holds true: ‘Policy-makers are experimenting with billions of people’s lives on a daily basis without informed consent, and without rigorous evidence that what they do works, has no substantive adverse effects, and could not be achieved more efficiently through other means.’ What has changed since then is that the amount of evidence readily available has grown exponentially, the methods have increasingly been adapted to the policy questions, and the available evidence partners have become more numerous. In other words, the excuses for not informing policies and programs with relevant evaluations and evidence are disappearing fast.

As we continue to grow our network of collaborators, our new Strategy 2024-2026 outlines the vision and mission of 3ie, a trusted long-term evidence partner globally. We have refined and reinforced our approach to working with governments and development institutions to understand and meet their evidence needs where they are. Our three strategic objectives are aligned with the core principles of the pathways to impact. 

Our commitment to improving the culture of evidence use grows stronger with every new partner that joins the Global Evidence Commitment which 3ie initiated. As we take the pledge forward, I am pleased to share that we will soon have 3ie’s long-standing partner, USAID, on board as a signatory (more on that below).

Whether it is through our public goods like the Development Evidence Portal, evidence gap maps, or Journal of Development Effectiveness, our expertise in impact evaluations and systematic reviews, our trainings and guidance materials in transparency, reproducibility, ethics and cost analysis, or our expert advice in how to use evidence for policy and learning, we intend to work with and share more capacity with organizations and governments – especially in critical sectors based on key challenges of our time.

Read this strategy document to know more about our mission and how we plan to achieve our goals.

Regards,

Marie Gaarder
Executive Director, 3ie

Featured 
USAID to join the Global Evidence Commitment 



We are excited to announce that USAID is all set to join forces with leading development institutions as a signatory to the Global Evidence Commitment (GEC). The GEC is a pledge to improve the evidence culture and use in development organizations. As the convenor of this pledge drawn up last year, 3ie has been privileged to facilitate our development partners and encourage more organizations to join us for mutual learning and support in making better use of rigorous evidence to improve the cost-effectiveness of projects.

Join us and other signatories as we welcome USAID at the official signing as part of the opening session of the Agency Learning and Evidence Month in May.

Agency Learning and Evidence Month 2024: USAID’s Commitment to Evidence | 2 May 2024 | 09:00 - 10:30 AM EDT 

The learning month’s opening panel will feature signatories of the Global Evidence Commitment speaking to why we have signed on and how we can work in concert to improve development effectiveness. As a signatory and convenor of the global pledge, 3ie facilitates mutual support and the implementation of commitments made. 3ie Executive Director Marie Gaarder will be moderating this session.

  • Isobel Coleman, Deputy Administrator, USAID (to be confirmed)
  • Michele Sumilas, Assistant to the Administrator, USAID Bureau for Planning, Learning and Resource Management
  • Alicia P Mandaville, Vice President, Department of Policy and Evaluation, Millenium Challenge Corporation
  • Jochen Kluwe, Director, Evaluation Unit at KfW Development Bank
  • Håvard Mokleiv Nygård, Director, Department of Knowledge, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
  • Marie Gaarder, Executive Director, 3ie (Chair)

Additional speakers to be announced.

Register for the session

For any queries about the GEC, please reach us at globalevidencecommitment@3ieimpact.org.

Featured | International Women’s Day round-up



With local partners, 3ie is collaborating on several projects and programs across sectors to produce and use evidence on women's empowerment and gender equality. Here’s a peek into the latest evidence from these:

  • Our recent study of multi-generational weaving businesses in India assesses the relationship between family ownership, weaving productivity and women’s agency. In this learning note, we provide insights into the workings of family-owned weaving businesses and understand their economic or commercial productivity when multiple or single generations are involved. This brief is a part of the Swashakt Evidence Program, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 
  • Our latest evidence gap map curates existing evidence on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Our analysis finds that only 57% of women across the world report having autonomy over sexual and reproductive health and rights-related decisions. This map was commissioned by the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and Co-Impact.
  • For every SDG apart from SDG 5 (gender equality), over 65 % of studies do not account for gender or equity in their research design. We find this in our recent analyses of studies available in 3ie’s Development Evidence Portal published between 1990 to 2022. The report provides an overview of state of effectiveness evidence across all the 17 Goals. 3ie produced the report with funding from the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
  • Maternal nutrition has life-altering effects – both for a woman and her child. 3ie, in partnership with the Government of Benin, recently launched an impact evaluation of a groundbreaking initiative: a practical, scalable nutrition program to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. We will measure the degree to which the program achieves its goals. This evaluation is a part of 3ie's West Africa Capacity-building and Impact Evaluation (WACIE) program.

Funding | FCDO Research Commissioning Centre

The FCDO Research Commissioning Centre has an open call for funding. We have also published responses to queries submitted for the call. You can find the details by clicking on the link below. If you want to receive updates directly in your inbox, please sign up to our mailing lists, or if you’re interested in a specific upcoming funding call, you can sign up for alerts.

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Blogs
Publications
Events

Upcoming events

EGM workshop: Why and how to create an evidence gap map using sexual and reproductive health and rights as an example | 23 April | 1-4 PM GMT

In this workshop, co-facilitated by 3ie and WHO, we will present a condensed version of 3ie’s Introduction to EGMs course using the example of our latest EGM on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).

Introduction and remarks:
Tanja Kuchenmüller, Head of the Evidence to Policy and Impact Unit, WHO and
Davi Mamblona Marques Romão, Expert, Evidence-Informed Health Policy, WHO

Presenters:
3ie SRHR EGM Project team: Birte Snilstveit, Shannon Shisler, Lina Khan, Tomasz Kozakiewicz, Megha Bhattacharyya

Read more | Register


Evidence Dialogues | Teaching critical thinking about health: impacts and implications | 25 April 2024 | 8:00 am – 9:30 am EST



In this 3ie Evidence Dialogues webinar, we will discuss the results of impact evaluations of an educational intervention to improve secondary students’ ability to think critically about health in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. We will present the results of randomized trials and process evaluations, a panel of policymakers will discuss implications and lessons learned from this research, and we will discuss the importance of critical thinking for international development in and beyond healthcare.

Read more | Register

Speakers

 

  • Andrew David Oxman, Research Director, Centre for Epidemic Interventions Research, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
  • Michael Mugisha, Assistant Lecturer, School of Public Health, University of Rwanda
  • Margaret Kaseje, Professor, Health Policy, Tropical Institute of Community Health and Development, Kenya
  • Nelson Sewankambo, Professor Emeritus, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University Uganda
  • Jane Njue, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, Kenya
  • Grace Baguma, Director, National Curriculum Development Centre, Uganda
  • Thomas Kelly, Director, Evidence for Policy and Learning, 3ie (Chair)

Read this blog to learn how digital educational resources were developed and evaluated for this research. 

 



What Works Climate Solutions Summit | 9–12 June 2024, Berlin

The What Works Climate Solutions Summit (WWCS) is a high-level conference for evidence-based climate policy to promote and catalyze synthetic evidence on climate solutions for upcoming climate change assessments – particularly the IPCC’s 7th Assessment Report ─ as well as other forms of scientific policy advice. 3ie is a partner organization and our Executive Director Marie Gaarder is part of the steering committee of WWCS.

Read more | Register


Past events

Future of evaluation: Charting a path in a changing development landscape
Commemorating 50 years of the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank

Session 1: The Role of Evaluation in a Changing Global Context | 8 April 2024

Read blog | View recording

How can evaluation remain relevant and provide policymakers with reliable evidence on global issues such as climate change, fragility, and pandemics, among others?

Moderator: Marie Gaarder, Executive Director, 3ie
Welcome: Sabine Bernabè, Vice President and Director-General, Evaluation, Independent Evaluation Group
Opening Remarks: Raj Kumar, Founding President and Editor-in-Chief, Devex

Speakers: 

 

 

  • Andrea Cook, Executive Director, Sustainable Development Goals System-Wide Evaluation Office, United Nations
  • Juha Ilari Uitto, former Director, Independent Evaluation Office, Global Environment Facility
  • Patricia Rogers, Founder, Better Evaluation, former Professor of Public Sector Evaluation, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

 

 


Sexual and reproductive health and rights in L&MICs – an Evidence Gap Map |  17 April 2024 



3ie’s latest evidence gap map pulls together more than 1,000 studies, including impact evaluations, systematic reviews and selected qualitative methods studies, looking at a broad range of SRHR interventions and outcomes across multiple populations in L&MICs and regions. In this webinar, we discussed existing evidence and evidence gaps about interventions to support family planning, maternal and newborn care, sexual and reproductive health and choice, addressing gender-based violence, and access to SRHR information and services in L&MICs.

Speakers

 

 

  • Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director, The Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW)
  • Serah Gitome, Acting Deputy Director, Sexual Reproductive and Adolescent Health (SRACH) Program & Clinical Research Scientist, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
  • Shagun Sabarwal, Asia Regional Director, Co-Impact
  • Birte Snilstveit, Director of the Synthesis and Reviews Office, 3ie (Chair)

Read more

Jobs

Join our growing and dynamic team by applying for one of these unique and impactful roles. View all the current opportunities here.

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 Godfrey Musuka, an International Public and Evaluation Consultant. He is an HIV/AIDS M&E and public health expert with 25 years of experience implementing health interventions in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Nigeria. Read more

Since 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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