USAID is committed to building the evidence base on what works through impact evaluations. For USAID Missions that are considering undertaking an Impact Evaluation to examine causal linkages in a trade facilitation or other type of trade capacity building project, it may be worth noting that in 2008-2009, the OECD commissioned a review of these types of projects to determine whether or not existing approaches for conducting impact evaluations (that include an examination of the counterfactual) were adequate for trade projects or whether new tools were needed. This method helps USAID staff understand if short-term impacts are sustained, or if theorized long-term impacts are realized. 2013 Report(link is external) 3. Supporting USAID Impact Evaluation in Honduras. This issue of the IFC's Monitor (Results Measurement for Advisory Services) looks at innovative approaches that are making it possible to carry out experimental and quasi-experimental Impact evaluations in a private sector context in developing countries. This Note defines impact evaluations, explains when they should be commissioned according to USAID policy and describes different designs for quasi-experimental and experimental impact evaluations. (1) USAID's Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) project: An impact evaluation of USAID's GSAM project, which aims to increase accountability of local District Assemblies in Ghana, tested the effect of two distinct efforts to increase accountability and improve service delivery outcomes at the district level. 1. In addition to prospective impact evaluations in which equivalent or close to equivalent groups are established prior to an intervention and followed to determine their post intervention status on outcome or effect measures of interest there are other types of impact evaluations what are useful under specific conditions, including designs that can be used in situations where all members of a population are exposed to a treatment, such as a policy reform, and which in some instance will be undertaken as retrospective impact evaluations. USAID Impact Evaluation of the Makhalidwe Athu Project (Zambia) Endline Report. Students were assessed prior to the start of the intervention in April 2018 and again at the end of the intervention in July 2018. 2013 Report(link is external) 3. The identification of a valid comparison group is critical for impact evaluations. By Winston J. Allen, PhD Senior Evaluation Specialist, USAID Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning USAID entered my life in 1963, when I participated in the school lunch program at my elementary school, the Congo Town Municipal Primary School in the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. In general, prospective impact evaluations are more likely to produce strong and credible evaluation results. Additional guidance on planning and conducting Impact Evaluations is available in USAID’s TIPS on Rigorous Impact Evaluation, in the World Bank volume, Impact Evaluation in Practice, and on the websites of a number of organizations that conduct and provide guidance material on Impact Evaluations, including the J-PAL, IPA, 3ie, NONIE and DIME, which are described on the kit’s page on Locating Evaluations and listed under “useful links” this page. Along this continuum, the preference in USAID's Evaluation Policy is clear: For impact evaluations, experimental methods generate the strongest evidence. These as well as other impact evaluation designs used in specialized circumstances are described in Impact Evaluation in Practice as well as in Experimental and Quasi Experimental Design for Generalized Causal Inference, as well as in other publications in this field. ENDLINE REPORT (FINAL) February 2018. Social Impact is a global development management consulting firm. USAID Evaluation Policy encourages Missions to undertake prospective impact evaluations that involve the identification of a comparison group or area, and the collection of baseline data, prior to the initiation of the project intervention. Pilot interventions should be identified during project or activity design, and the impact evaluation should be integrated into the design of the project or activity. Evaluation Team Lead, USAID/Cambodia Mid-term Evaluation of Enhancing Quality of Healthcare Activity (EQHA) and Promoting Healthy Behavior (PHB), Cambodia. Impact evaluations are an important tool for learning, in a precise way, about the extent and intensity of project effects as well as about the degree to which those effects can be said to have been caused by a specific intervention. Other impact evaluation designs, are intended for use when populations that are known to be different (such as those living above and below a poverty line) are to be compared after the poorer group receives an intervention that is designed to improve their circumstances. The USAID Water Team, through its Water Communications and Knowledge Management project (Water CKM), conducted a series of six independent ex-post evaluations to better understand the long-term impact and sustainability of its WASH-related interventions. USAID/Ghana contracted Social Impact, Inc. to conduct an impact evaluation of USAID’s Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms (GSAM) program, which aims to increase accountability of local District Assemblies in Ghana. 2016 (Five-Year) Report 2. In principle, the group or area that receives an intervention should be equivalent to the group or area that does not. Learn how you can get involved and lend a hand. Impact Evaluation of USAID's Crime and Violence Prevention Approach in Central America. NORC at the University of Chicago. Make a general inquiry or suggest an improvement. The impact evaluation employs a Difference-in … The reports below summarize evaluation requirements and practices at USAID before and after the Evaluation Policy, major accomplishments during the first five years of implementation, and priority activities to support policy implementation moving forward. To assess the effectiveness of USAID’s community-based crime and violence prevention programs in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama, Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project launched a three-year impact evaluation.. Make a general inquiry or suggest an improvement. The reports below summarize evaluation requirements and practices at USAID before and after the Evaluation Policy, major accomplishments during the first five years of implementation, and priority activities to support policy implementation moving forward. The subject of a USAID evaluation may include any level of USAID programming, from a policy to a strategy to a project, individual award, activity, intervention, or even cross-cutting programmatic priority. Prospective evaluations are developed at the same time as the program is being designed and are built into program implementation. If it is not feasible to effectively undertake an impact evaluation, the Mission or Washington OU must conduct a performance evaluation and document why an impact evaluation wasn’t feasible. Impact evaluations aren’t fair. Evaluations at USAID include impact evaluations and performance evaluations. Prospective impact evaluations that employ randomized assignment are classified as having experimental designs (also called randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The conclusion of this OECD study, which was not issued as an OECD publication was that the experimental and quasi-experimental designs already being used on a prospective as well as a retrospective basis to examine a wide range of interventions in developing countries were both adequate and appropriate for carrying out these types of impact evaluations in the aid for trade arena. Randomized assignment is a method for creating groups that do and do not receive a project intervention. U.S. Agency for International Development, Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference, Running Randomized Evaluations: A Practical Guide, decision to undertake and impact evaluation, Experimental and Quasi Experimental Design for Generalized Causal Inference. BETTER PROJECTS THROUGH IMPROVED In the figure below, Steps 3-12 above are displayed on a timeline that suggests how the timing of these steps can be linked to the timing of steps in a project implementation process. When USAID decides, during the design phase of a project, to undertake a prospective Impact Evaluation that will involve a comparison, a number of preparatory steps may need to be undertaken fairly quickly. For more information, please contact Paul Fekete. The impact evaluation is aimed at addressing both the Accountability and Learning objectives as laid out in the USAID Evaluation Policy, and will be used by USAID YYC staff in order to inform future programming in YYC in Kenya and beyond. USAID Evaluation Policy encourages Missions to undertake prospective impact evaluations that involve the identification of a comparison group or area, and the collection of baseline data, prior to the initiation of the project intervention. Any other method of assigning members of a population to treatment and comparison groups, no matter how elaborate or carefully developed, involves decisions by evaluators about the basis on which population members will be assigned to the treatment or comparison groups. Use of Randomization in the Evaluation of Development Effectiveness, Impact Evaluations and Development Nonie Guidance on Impact Evaluation, Handbook on Impact Evaluation: Quantitative Methods and Practices (World Bank). Filed Under: Technical Resources, Guidance, Evaluation 2012 Report(link is external) LAPOP carried out an extensive mixed-methods, multi-year, four-nation impact evaluation of USAID’s program in violence prevention programs focused at the neighborhood level. MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING, A toolkit developed and implemented by: Alternative methods should be utilized only when random assignment strategies are infeasible. Find out about career opportunities at USAID. The resulting treatment and non-treatment (or control) groups are deemed to be functionally equivalent, as all of the other characteristics of population members have been distributed across both groups. This type of impact evaluation can potentially be employed whenever an intervention is delivered to some but not all members of a population, i.e., … This research donor organizations that were asked to review both the Statement of Work and the product of this.! 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