Cost-tober webinar series

Costs play a central role in the design and comparison of technology-based innovations in financially-constrained markets. Yet we see relatively little sophisticated discussion of costs in published papers. On 20 November, our fourth and final panel in the "Cost-ober" webinar series accompanies an announcement by the journal, Development Engineering (DevEng), that they are launching a special issue to address this cost evidence gap. The panel will feature DevEng Editor-in-Chief Susan Amrose leading a discussion of current outstanding challenges and opportunities in the use of cost estimation as a tool for designing and implementing tech innovations in low-resource settings.

Panellists:
Alaka Holla, Program Manager, Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund, World Bank
Loïc Daudey, Country Manager, French Development Agency (AFD - Agence française de développement)
Caroline Delaire, Deputy Director of Technology and Innovation, Aquaya
Daniele Lantagne, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University School of Engineering.  
Moderator
Susan Amrose, Research Scientist, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Understanding the costs of a program or policy–in addition to its impacts–is critical to making informed decisions about how limited development resources are spent. Yet the supply of cost evidence in international development is low, of inferior quality, and lacking in transparency.

In this discussion, the panel talked about the current outstanding challenge and opportunities in the use of cost estimation as a tool for designing technology-based innovations in financially constrained markets.