Understanding what’s what: the importance of sector knowledge in causal chain analysis

Howard White 04 March 2015 blog  
My recent blog, How big is big enough?, argued that you need sector expertise to judge if the effect of a programme is meaningful rather than just statistically significant. But the need for sector expertise goes far deeper than that. I have recently been reading impact evaluations of water supply and sanitation studies. The studies by the non-sector researchers (mostly economists) collect data on the outcome of interest, usually child diarrhoea. But they do little more than that.

What’s wrong with evidence-informed development? Part 2

Howard White 18 February 2015 blog  

3ie’s recent systematic review of farmer field schools (FFS) found that these programmes worked as pilots and small- scale programmes. But the few impact evaluations  of  national-level programmes found no impact.  The evidence suggested that problems in recruiting and training appropriate faciliators impeded the scale-up of the experiential learning model of farmer field schools.

Evidence gap maps: an innovative tool for seeing what we know and don’t know

Birte Snilstveit, Marie Gaarder 05 February 2015 blog  

Whether you are a research funder, decision maker or researcher, keeping up with the ever expanding evidence base is not easy. Over 2600 impact evaluations and 300 systematic reviews assessing the effects of international development interventions have been completed or are ongoing to help answer that question and understand how, why and at what cost.  Despite this increase in quality evidence, more evidence is needed, which is why funders and researchers continue to fund and produce new research.

What’s wrong with evidence-informed development? Part 1

Howard White 13 January 2015 blog  

On my reading list as an undergraduate in development studies was Peter Laslett’s The World We Have Lost, This is a social history that challenges the view that pre-industrial England was a stagnant society. Rather, it had many of the features of industrial or even modern Britain.

How to peer review replication research

Annette Brown, Benjamin DK Wood 07 January 2015 blog  

“The 3ie replication process differs in important ways from the standard research community-led peer-review process in academic journals. We have been explicitly instructed by 3ie staff not to discuss our experiences with the replication process at any length in this note, including our views on the weaknesses of their current system and the review standards they employ.

Proof-of-concept evaluations: Building evidence for effective scale-ups

Heather Lanthorn 16 December 2014 blog  

I delivered a talk at 3ie’s Delhi Seminar Series on a recently published PLoS ONE paper) and follow-up research.

Myths about microcredit and meta-analysis

Hugh Waddington 10 December 2014 blog  
It is widely claimed that microcredit lifts people out of poverty and empowers women. But evidence to support such claims is often anecdotal. A typical micro-finance organisation website paints a picture of very positive impact through stories: “Small loans enable them (women) to transform their lives, their children’s futures and their communities. 

Impact evaluations of agriculture & rural development programmes | Markus Olapade

03 December 2014 video  

Agricultural productivity in Africa is low although there are several technologies now available for increasing yields.

Evaluating the impact of an education programme | Radhika Menon

03 December 2014 video  

Many education programmes have helped in increasing the enrolment and attendance of children in schools but there is less evidence on what works in improving learning.

Demand creation for voluntary medical male circumcision: how can we influence emotional choices?

Eric Djimeu, Annette Brown 01 December 2014 blog  
This year in anticipation of World AIDS Day, UNAIDS is focusing more attention on reducing new infections as opposed to treatment expansion. As explained by Center for Global Development’s Mead Over in his blog post, reducing new infections is crucial for easing the strain on government budgets for treatment as well as for eventually reaching “the AIDS transition” when the total number of people living with HIV begins to decline.
Subscribe to