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October 2017   Making evidence matter
Evidence uptake and use from 3ie-funded studies
Improving the culture of evidence use to reform public financial management in Pakistan: Low tax revenues act as a serious constraint to economic growth and provision of state services. Pakistan, in particular, has done poorly on tax revenue collection, including property taxes. Government employees often lack incentives to collect taxes. Researchers at Innovation for Poverty Action and the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan collaborated with the provincial government of Punjab to evaluate if paying tax collectors for performance had an impact on tax revenue, while maintaining or improving assessment accuracy and customer satisfaction. The impact evaluation results showed that the pay-for-performance scheme resulted in higher tax collection through an expanded tax base, with no damage to public perceptions of the Excise and Taxation Department.

The impact evaluation was part of the team’s ongoing engagement with the Punjab government to address short- and long-term policy priorities and to build the evidence base on issues around public financial management and governance. Driven by this strong engagement, as well as demand for rigorous evidence from government decision makers, including the chief minister, the research team is undertaking another impact evaluation supported through 3ie’s Development Priorities grant programme. The evaluation will test whether increasing the alignment between the demand for and provision of urban services in a neighbourhood and how that links to taxes paid may strengthen the social compact between the state and citizens.
New 3ie publications
Evidence gap map reports: A map of evidence maps relating to sustainable development in low- and middle-income countries. The online interactive map is available here.

Impact evaluation brief: Encouraging Kenyan men to use HIV self-test kits, Encouraging HIV testing among truck drivers in Kenya and What is the impact of a community-managed conditional cash transfer programme in Tanzania?

Evidence use brief: Using evidence to inform the scale-up and adoption of biofortified orange sweet potato in Uganda

Impact Evaluation reports: Impact of the Uddeepaan programme on child health and nutrition: evidence from India; Reduced-form impacts of formal insurance against weather shocks: evidence from India; General equilibrium impact assessment of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia; Promoting partner and couples HIV testing using self-test kits in Kenya; Evaluating oral HIV self-testing to increase HIV testing uptake among truck drivers in Kenya; Increasing male partner HIV testing using self-test kits in Kenya; Improving ART adherence at reproductive and child health clinics integrating Option B+ in Tanzania and Evaluating the impact of community health worker integration into prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services in Tanzania

Scoping paper: Promoting latrine use in India and Understanding financial risks for smallholder farmers in low-and middle-income countries: what do we know and not know?

Systematic review technical reports: Interventions to improve the labour market for adults living with physical and/or sensory disabilities in low- and middle-income countries and What are the effective types of contractual arrangements to increase smallholder's market power, food security, marketed surplus and net returns?

Systematic review summary report: Promoting handwashing and sanitation behaviour change in low- and middle-income countries A mixed-method systematic review.

Systematic review brief: Handwashing and sanitation behaviour change in WASH interventions.
Peer-reviewed publications of 3ie-funded studies
Click here to access a list of the recent peer-reviewed publications of 3ie-funded research.
3ie London Evidence Week, 6-10 November
3ie London Evidence Week 2017 includes both our regular board meeting and a number of public events that highlight 3ie-funded work, priority themes and provide a spotlight on the work of the local 3ie office. In London, this is the synthesis and reviews office. Events will be held in various venues in Bloomsbury, making it convenient for participants. All events are free. The 3ie one-day conference on the 8 November will focus on ‘evidence that matters for vulnerable and marginalised people in international development’. Click here to register. Download the draft agenda

Howard White Lecture 2017
 
Professor Charlotte Watts, DFID chief scientific advisor, will deliver the annual Howard White Lecture to open the 3ie one-day conference on 8 November. As a renowned researcher in HIV and gender-based violence, her lecture will be very well suited to our theme. She has held numerous senior research and advisory positions, including being a member of the core research team for the landmark WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence and was the research director, until her DFID appointment, for a consortium studying the structural drivers of HIV. She is a professor of social and mathematical epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.



Partners’ events in London during the 3ie’s evidence week

3ie is pleased to be coordinating our London Evidence Week events with partners who also have events the same week. To know more about the events organised by the Campbell Collaboration, Humanitarian Evidence Week organised by Evidence Aid and the Festival of Social Sciences, please click here.
3ie at recent events
3ie at the Global Evidence Summit 2017, 13-16 September, Cape Town

The summit attracted more than 1300 participants, with many being systematic review researchers because the summit was integrated with the regular Cochrane colloquium. 3ie organised three well-attended panels: (1) Rigorous and relevant systematic reviews: Lessons learned from mixed methods approaches in international development; (2) A panoramic view of rapid reviews – uses and perspectives from global collaborations and networks; and (3) Mapping the evidence: different approaches to evidence mapping across disciplines. 3ie staff also participated in three sessions: Evidence and gap maps: A systematic approach to scoping; Evidence-based education policy and practice: Sharing global experiences; and Mapping the evidence: Different approaches to evidence mapping across disciplines. 3ie’s workshop, organised with grantees at the Belgian Red Cross, explored how better stakeholder engagement can improve the relevance of the review and use of evidence from it. 3ie co-chaired a session on Evidence matters: Examples of evidence-based decision making in humanitarian emergencies and how it can be improved. 3ie’s Science, technology, innovation and partnerships (STIP) evidence gap map and report was the basis of a long oral session presentation.

Capacity building to produce useful evidence: Who sets the agenda and what needs to change? Satellite session at the Global Evidence Summit, 12 September
 
3ie, the Africa Evidence Network, DPME, CLEAR-AA and J-PAL Africa organised a satellite session to reflect on current evidence production and synthesis capacity-building approaches. There were interesting discussions on ways to improve capacity building to meet producer and user needs and actions that can promote a dialogue for change. In recent years, investing in improving primary research in Sub-Saharan Africa have increased. However, building capacity to produce and use evaluation evidence and evidence synthesis has been more sporadic, highly targeted and implemented toward accountability and internal or donor requirements. Often, efforts are one-offs, not based on best practice or user needs. This workshop was part of an ongoing initiative among 3ie and partners to increase and sustain a productive dialogue in the region that will help identify needs and effective capacity-building approaches and foster their adoption. One clear action point was the need for providers to communicate more with each other and collaborate better.

Launch of the 3ie Map of Evidence Maps at Global Evidence Summit 2017
 
3ie launched the first of its kind map of evidence maps, designed to catalogue evidence maps relating to development interventions in low- and middle-income countries. 3ie led the production of the map and report with funding and technical contributions from the Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning, which is a consortium initiative undertaken by UK aid through DFID. Overall, the team found 55 completed and 18 ongoing evidence maps that met the inclusion criteria. The intervention sectors are adapted from the World Bank’s categorisation and outcomes are classified according to the Sustainable Development Goals. Read more.
 
Recent 3ie seminars
3ie Delhi seminar, 23 August

Annemie Maertens, agricultural economist and senior lecturer at the University of Sussex, presented results from an ongoing 3ie-funded impact evaluation in Malawi. Agricultural extension systems tend to rely primarily on two models for disseminating information about new technologies: farmer field days and farmer-led demonstration plots. Annemie presented on the effects of these two models on farmer learning and adoption of integrated soil fertility management practices. Read more

3ie-LIDC seminar, London, 4 September

Stephen Taylor, director of research, monitoring and evaluation, South African Department of Basic Education, presented findings from a 3ie-funded impact evaluation of an early grade reading study. Stephen talked about how a structured learning programme consisting of lesson plans aligned to the official curriculum is showing the largest impact on reading outcomes, but only when supported by on-site coaching, rather than by centralised teacher training workshops

3ie Delhi seminar, 22 September

Ronald Abraham and Elizabeth Bennett from IDinsight presented excerpts from their State of Aadhaar Report 2016-17, which provides an overview of the Aadhaar landscape and highlights areas for future research. Read more

Learn more about the state of evidence in the WASH sector

In this video, Hugh Waddington, senior evaluation specialist at 3ie, provides an overview of the state of evidence in the WASH sector. Watch this short video to understand what evidence exists, where are the important gaps and how 3ie in partnership with other organisations is working to make a meaningful contribution to evaluation and evidence in the WASH sector.

3ie’s systematic review on education effectiveness cited in the World Bank’s World Development Report 2018

3ie’s systematic review on education effectiveness has been cited several times in the World Bank’s new World Development Report 2018- Learning to realize education’s promise. This is the first World Development Report devoted entirely to education. It emphasises the importance of assessing children’s learning and for evidence-informed actions to improve schools.
Job opportunities at 3ie
Director, Synthesis and Reviews Office, 3ie, London Deadline: 18 October
Program Manager, 3ie, Washington, DC, Application accepted on a rolling basis
Consultant, Content writer and editor, 3ie, New Delhi, Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
Click here to view more job opportunities in other organisations
   

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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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