Ten things that can go wrong with randomised controlled trials

Howard White 23 August 2014 blog  
From the vantage point of 3ie having funded over 150 studies in the last few years, there are some pitfalls to watch for in order to design and implement randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that lead to better policies and better lives. If we don’t watch out for these, we will just end up wasting the time and money of funders, researchers and the intended beneficiaries.

Impact evaluations of infrastructure sector projects and programmes | Howard White

19 August 2014 video  

Although it may be considered a challenge, infrastructure projects can lend themselves to impact evaluation methods. In this video, Howard White takes you through the different evaluation designs that can be used for assessing the impact of infrastructure programmes.

How fruity should you be?

Howard White 05 August 2014 blog  

A couple of months back the BBC reported a new study which questioned existing advice to eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day.  Five was not enough according to the study authors, it should be seven.  I really do try each day to eat five portions. Where was I going to find the time and space for these extra two portions?  But this looked like a sound study published in a respected academic journal, with data from over 65,000 people.

Unexpected and disappearing outcomes: Why relying on proxy outcomes is often not enough

Howard White 02 July 2014 blog  

In the early years of the Second World War, British intelligence undertook one of its first exercises in strategic deception. To divert the attention of occupying Italian forces from a planned attack on Eritrea by troops based in Sudan, the British engaged in various activities to make the Italians think an attack was going to be launched on British Somaliland from Egypt.  The British were successful in making the Italians believe that an attack was coming.

If the answer isn’t 42, how do we find it?

Howard White 16 June 2014 blog  
Those of you around my age may be familiar with Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in which the answer to the question ‘What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?’ turns out to be the number 42.  We wish that systematic reviews could be like that. Throw all the evidence into a big number cruncher and out pops a single answer.

The efficacy – effectiveness continuum and impact evaluation

Drew Cameron 03 June 2014 blog  

This week we proudly launch the Impact Evaluation Repository, a comprehensive index of around 2,400 impact evaluations in international development that have met our explicit inclusion criteria. In creating these criteria we set out to establish an objective, binary (yes or no) measure of whether a study is an impact evaluation, as defined by 3ie, or not.

Is independence always a good thing?

Howard White 01 May 2014 blog  

Evaluation departments of development agencies have traditionally jealously guarded their independence. They are separate from the operational side of agencies, sometimes entirely distinct, as in the case of UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact or the recently disbanded Swedish Agency for Development Evaluation. Staff from the evaluation department, or at least the head, are often not permitted to stay on in any other department of the agency once their term ends.

Failure is the new black in development fashion: Why learning from mistakes should be more than a fad

Howard White 22 April 2014 blog  

During a meeting at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) last week, I mentioned the UK Department for International Development’s moves toward recognising failure, and the part recognizing failure has in learning (see Duncan Green’s recent blog on this).   Arturo Galindo, from IADB’s Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness, responded by picking up a copy of their latest Development Effectiveness

When will researchers ever learn?

Howard White 07 April 2014 blog  
I was recently sent a link to this 1985 World Health Organization (WHO) paper which examines the case for using experimental and quasi-experimental designs to evaluate water supply and sanitation (WSS) interventions in developing countries. This paper came out nearly 30 years ago. But the problems it lists in impact evaluation study designs are still encountered today. What are these problems?

Institutionalising evaluation in India

Shagun Sabarwal 26 March 2014 blog  
The launch event of Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) which happened in Delhi, included an eclectic mix of presenters and panelists consisting of key policymakers (including the chairperson of India’s planning commission), bureaucrats, India-based researchers and representatives from the Indian media. The discussions at the event brought to the fore several challenges that the IEO will face as it moves forward:
Subscribe to