UNICEF Country Led M&E Systems

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) resources on Impact Assessment - list of downloadable publications and discussion papers. "To more systematically measure our impact, IFPRI launched a coordinated impact assessment effort in 1996. The objectives of IFPRI's impact assessment activities are to: * ensure accountability of IFPRI to its clients * maintain credibility with clients * improve IFPRI's internal decisionmaking process and our capacity to learn from past experiences * ensure that IFPRI's work continues to remain relevant and useful in a rapidly changing world To meet these objectives, IFPRI developed five priority areas for its impact assessment research: * to expand the information available on how to measure the benefits of policy-oriented social science research * to qualitatively determine how policymakers and others use policy-focused research results * to assess how IFPRI's research in thematic areas, such as rural finance for the poor, influences the countries where the research is conducted and beyond into the international arena * to study the impacts of specific research projects at the country level * to conduct an integrated assessment of IFPRI's past research in numerous areas"

Addressing attribution of cause and effect in small impact evaluations - an integrated approach

"DEC is coordinating impact evaluations of Bank-supported programs for a few strategic themes or types of development interventions, including conditional cash transfer programs, the role of information in promoting accountability, different types of school management and teacher-contracting schemes, and slum-upgrading programs. This focused approach enables systematic comparison of interventions of different designs (e.g. public vs. privat service delivery) in different settings. It also enables learning, both in terms of identifying what works and what doesn’t, and obtaining measures of performance to be expected from successful programs. These evaluations and meta-evaluations are available to the development community."

Links to Materials on Livelihoods Connect.

"This book of stories on impact assessment, written by a journalist/editor, with guidance from an experienced development practitioner, is illustrative of CTA's efforts to promote a culture of organisational learning. It is both entertaining and informative, conveying a serious message in a light style about what might have gone wrong with past attempts at impact assessment. Most significantly, the book shows that, with the correct approach, impact assessment studies can help to shed much-needed light on the intricate social and technical fabric that converts inputs into activities, activities into outputs, outputs into outcomes, and outcomes into impact." * Theme: Information and Communication Management * Subtheme: Soil and land

3IE Theory-Driven Impact Evaluations

"Each year billions of dollars are spent on thousands of programs to improve health, education and other social sector outcomes in the developing world. But very few programs benefit from studies that could determine whether or not they actually made a difference. This absence of evidence is an urgent problem: it not only wastes money but denies poor people crucial support to improve their lives. This report by the Evaluation Gap Working Group provides a strategic solution to this problem addressing this gap, and systematically building evidence about what works in social development, proving it is possible to improve the effectiveness of domestic spending and development assistance by bringing vital knowledge into the service of policymaking and program design. In 2004 the Center for Global Development, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, convened the Evaluation Gap Working Group. The group was asked to investigate why rigorous impact evaluations of social development programs, whether financed directly by developing country governments or supported by international aid, are relatively rare. The Working Group was charged with developing proposals to stimulate more and better impact evaluations. This report, the final report of the working group, contains specific recommendations for addressing this urgent problem."