DevChat: Development evidence chatbot – making evidence accessible
We are developing an easy-access tool to help you utilize 3ie’s Development Evidence Portal (DEP) — one of the world’s largest curated collections of impact evaluations and systematic reviews in international development. It serves as your personal guide to the portal and makes your search easier and more intuitive.
‘DevChat’, a user-friendly, multilingual chatbot powered by GenAI aims to connect you directly to the world’s largest repository of human-vetted impact evaluations, 3ie's Development Evidence Portal. It will place rigorous evidence on what works, for whom, and why directly in the hands of decision-makers, so that every dollar spent drives meaningful, measurable change in people’s lives. Join the list of early testers
Our forthcoming Gen AI-based assistant, ‘DevChat’, will use the world’s largest repository of human-vetted impact evaluations and systematic reviews—3ie’s Development Evidence Portal (DEP)—to deliver real-time, multilingual, and tailored evidence summaries to decision-makers. By leveraging Gen AI tools, along with our unique evidence repository of over 18,000 impact evaluation studies and 1500 systematic reviews, we hope to ensure that every dollar spent drives meaningful, measurable change in people’s lives.
About DevChat
The DEP chatbot, DevChat, helps policymakers, researchers, and practitioners quickly find the evidence they need to inform decisions and strengthen programs. Whether you’re looking for studies on a specific sector, country, or theme, or you want to explore evidence gap maps and systematic reviews, the chatbot is designed to simplify navigation and highlight the most relevant resources.
By combining powerful search features with user-friendly guidance, the chatbot makes DEP more accessible—helping you move from questions to evidence faster.
Frequently asked questions
Questions relevant to the content and topics in the DEP (namely, questions related to international development programs/interventions).
As with most Gen AI platforms, DevChat will find it difficult to respond to discrete numerical questions (e.g., asking it to count the number of studies on a particular topic, or categorize studies by how often they mention particular words). It will also not be able to respond to questions that do not pertain to the evidence in the DEP (e.g., general facts or statistics or names, if they are not mentioned in one of the studies)
No, DevChat is not meant to replace the systematic review process. While similar tools can support components of a systematic review, that is not currently DevChat’s aim.
No, DevChat will only provide responses based on existing evidence within the DEP. It can be used as a brainstorming assistant in the evidence generation process but cannot replace the role of a researcher in designing and conducting an evaluation.
Yes, DevChat always provides references so that you can verify or find out more from the source of the response.
For any other questions or more information about this initiative, please contact 3ie’s Data Innovations Group at dig[at]3ieinfo[dot]org.
