Impact Evaluation for Evidence-Based Policy in Development course

Introduction

The course aimed to address an important prerequisite for incorporating impact evaluation (IE) into programme design: a theoretical and practical understanding of IE approaches to enable selection of appropriate methodologies, coupled with careful appraisal of the resulting evidence. The course introduced participants to current quantitative as well as qualitative evaluation techniques for impact evaluation and gave them an insight into the critical understanding of the roles they can play in the design and assessment of public policy and development interventions. The group enthusiastically tackled the difficulties of learning STATA,NVIVO and the intricacies of evaluation research designs and econometric techniques, all bolstered by the support of the experienced teaching team.

Who Should Attend?

This course is targeted at researchers, project staff, managers, development practitioners, policy makers in government, NGOs and development organizations who want to determine the impact of their interventions

Course Outline

Overview of M&E Fundamentals for Impact Evaluation

• Results Framework
• M&E Project Indicators
• Logical Framework
• Performance Evaluation

Introduction to Impact Evaluation

• Defining impact evaluation
• Deciding whether to evaluate
• Attribution in impact evaluation
• Contribution vs attribution

Determining points of Impact Evaluation

• Types of evaluation questions
• Theories of Change
• The results chain
• Evaluation hypothesis
• Impact evaluation indicators

Counterfactuals in Impact Evaluation

• Causal reference
• Comparison groups and counterfactuals
• Estimating counterfactual in impact evaluation
• Impact Evaluation when a Comparison and Baseline Data are not available

Impact Evaluation Research Designs

• Experimental Design
  • Randomized Control Trials
• Quasi experimental designs
  • Regression Discontinuity
  • Difference-in-Difference
  • Matching
• Non-experimental designs

Sampling in Impact Evaluation

• Sampling techniques in Impact Evaluation
• Sample size calculation,
• Sampling weight
• Statistical power
• Constructing valid comparison groups

Quantitative Data Analysis for Impact Evaluation

Randomized Impact Evaluation

• Setting the counterfactual
• Statistical Design of Randomization
• Impacts of Program Placement
• Impacts of Program Participation
• Capturing Both Program Placement and Participation
• Measuring Spillover Effects

Propensity Score Matching Technique (PSM)

• Introduction to PSM
• Application of PSM in Impact Evaluation
• Constructing propensity scores
• Matching Analysis (Nearest-Neighbour, Stratification, Radius, Kernel )
• Common support
• Doubly Robust Estimation

Difference in Difference Method

• What is DID?
• Application of DID in Impact Evaluation
• Estimating DID estimator: Single DID, DID with covariates, Quantile DID
• DID for Cross-Sectional Data
• Balancing Tests
• Diff-in-Diff with Propensity Score Matching

Qualitative Approaches in Impact Evaluation

• Most Significant Change
• Outcome Mapping
• Outcome Harvesting
• Appreciative Inquiry

Producing and Disseminating Impact Evaluation findings

• Impact Evaluation Plan
• Impact Evaluation Reports: Baseline report, Impact Evaluation Reports
• Case studies