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Impact Evaluation: Presentation to DAC Evaluation Working Group, Paris, June 2, 2005. Howard White Operations Evaluation Department World Bank. What is impact evaluation?. Has had different meanings Sector or country-wide evaluation Long-run effects Establishing the counterfactual
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Impact Evaluation:Presentation to DAC Evaluation Working Group, Paris, June 2, 2005 Howard White Operations Evaluation Department World Bank
What is impact evaluation? • Has had different meanings • Sector or country-wide evaluation • Long-run effects • Establishing the counterfactual • Focus on final welfare outcomes • OED adopt a combination of the last two: ‘a counterfactual-based analysis of how the intervention has affected welfare outcomes’
Impact evaluation in the development context • Been associated with poverty, gender and environment effects, using mixed methods with bias toward qualitative • But growing tide of quantitative impact evaluation. Driven by: • New techniques and technology • Results-based agenda (including MDGs)
Impact evaluation at the World Bank • As with all evaluation, much work takes place outside of OED • For impact there is a new initiative (DIME) promoting greater use of impact evaluation. These studies are: • All prospective • Attempt to promote randomization • OED’s own program is adopting a range of non-experimental approaches, firmly grounded by context
The existing OED program • Impact evaluation not new to OED • Over 80 studies classified as impact, and others not so classified adopt different approaches to measuring impact • Current program under OED-DFID partnership supporting three studies: • Ghana basic education • Bangladesh maternal and child health • India rural poverty
Ghana: Method and approach • Main data collection was survey to follow up GLSS2 from 1988 education module • Combined with time spent in the field in three visits • Background analysis: budget and political economy (context) • Multivariate analysis of determinants of educational outcomes. Link those determinants to donor-financed activities • Work in collaboration with MOEYS and GSS
Ghana: findings • Enrolments are rising • Learning outcomes are improving • Better school infrastructure is part of explanation • Hence Bank-financed school investments lay behind a substantial part of these improvements in education outcomes • But growing dichotomization of public sector (partly rectified in new Bank-supported program)
Bangladesh: method and approach • Initial meta-analysis • Using existing data sets (mainly DHS) • Own analysis and commissioned studies • Multivariate analysis of determinants of mortality and nutrition (Oaxaca decomposition) • For BINP using propensity score matching combining two datasets (problem of poor quality and contaminated control) • Holistic approach • Work with IMED, and local research company
Bangladesh findings • Role of publicly-supported interventions in successful reduction of fertility and mortality • Immunization most cost-effective, but so are • Training TBAs • Female secondary stipends • Strong cross-sectoral effects (need not imply multi-sectoral programs) • BINP: theory-based approach identifies weak links that help explain poor outcomes
India rural poverty • Looking at two interventions • AP Irrigation II and III • AP Rural Livelihoods Project • Three rounds of surveys (2005-2007) • Using innovative data collection instruments for ‘immeasurables’
Do you want to do your own impact studies? • Pros • Demonstrate results • Perceived as high quality products, appear to find audience in country teams • Cons • Expensive • Technically demanding • So when to use • Periodic validation • Pilots
What do you need to do your own impact study? • Some opportunism in selecting cases • Sufficient scale intervention to justify cost • Lengthy lead time, especially if collecting own data (18 months from start to finish is best you can hope for, 24-30 months is more realistic) • Appropriate skills mix • Promote prospective evaluation
How OED is planning to take its program forward • Partnership has helped consolidate commitment to continuing impact evaluation • ‘Study a year’ is built into work program • One prospective study being agreed (possibly Karnataka health) • Open to discussion of expanded program