Impact evaluation is the best way to find out what works in the fight against poverty
CUERNAVACA, Mexico – Children from poor families in rural China improved their grade from ‘C’ to ‘B’ by simply taking three cents a day of multivitamins with iron supplements. Deworming children in rural Kenya drastically improved school attendance. Substituting dirt floors of houses with cement floors in Mexico reduced the incidence of diarrhea by half and anaemia by over 80 per cent. Evidence shows that simple solutions can go a long way in improving the lives of the poor.
“Simply measuring success by the volume of spending, or even the number of teachers trained, kilometres of road built and women’s groups formed, is not enough. It is only with a widespread adoption of impact evaluation to generate more evidence on what works, why and at what cost that will we ensure that development spending makes a difference to people’s lives,” said 3ie Executive Director, Howard White at today’s conference "Mind the gap: from evidence to policy impact" in Cuernavaca.
The demand for concrete results has intensified in the past few years. Many countries are now requiring rigorous evaluations of their development programs to ensure more cost-effective solutions to critical development programs. This commitment to evaluation is an essential step to smarter and more effective policies.
One of the key obstacles to improving effectiveness is the lack of knowledge about the best ways of combating crime, reversing the spread of HIV, adapting to climate change, improving maternal mortality, and reducing unemployment and food insecurity. Knowing what works will save money otherwise spent on policies that don’t work, directing resources to effective interventions.
”The advances in rigorous impact evaluation within the field of development in recent years are truly striking: More. Better. More relevant to the questions that those in the policy community are asking, and generating better evidence to inform policy and funding decisions. 3ie has been an important contributor to these changes, as has the ever-widening circle of those who fund, conduct, and use impact evaluations,” said Ruth Levine recently appointed Director of the Global Development and Population program at Hewlett Foundation after having headed the USAID evaluation department.
Earlier there were just a few impact studies, mainly in Latin America and mainly in the health and education sectors. Now there are many more impact evaluations being carried out in other regions and in all sectors.
3ie alone is funding 100 impact evaluations and systematic reviews in the area of agriculture, education, finance, health, water and sanitation, social protection, governance and environment, and in countries spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
“Now, more than ever, we are committed to advancing in the evaluation of the impact of our work and to sharing the knowledge of our experience in effective development in Latin America and the Caribbean. We want to make sure that we are creating cost-effective solutions in line with the mandate of our Donors”, said Carola Alvarez Chief of the Strategic Planning and Development Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
According to the IDB’s 2010 Development Effectiveness Overview, almost 30 percent of the IDB’s projects were approved with a rigorous evaluation last year.
According to the 2010 Development Effectiveness Overview, almost 30 percent of the Inter-American Development Bank’s projects were approved with a rigorous evaluation last year. In the World Bank, over 300 studies have been initiated under the Development Impact Evaluation Initiative and the Spanish World Bank Trust Fund initiatives. In total, there are about 800 or more completed or on-going impact evaluations of development programmes. These are clear signs of a silent revolution for evidence based policy. This conference is a step towards closing the gap between evidence and policy impact.
Live updates from the conference available at: http://www.impactevaluation2011.org/forum/.
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