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Evaluation Agency Created by CGD Shares “Best in Aid” Award
March 19, 2010
AidWatch – the brainchild of noted aid critic (and former CGD fellow) Bill Easterly – has given its Best in Aid Grand Prize to the “Smart Giving movement,” nominated by Saundra Schimmelpfennig of the blog Good Intentions are Not Enough. AidWatch included the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) as part of this “Smart Giving movement” for its role in learning about what kinds of development programs work (and which ones don’t). Having worked with Ruth Levine and Nancy Birdsall in leading the Evaluation Gap Initiative that led to the creation of 3ie, this is music to my ears.
It is good to hear AidWatch say that “many more donors now insist on serious EVALUATION and ACCOUNTABILITY than used to do so.” But this movement to improve the impact of development programs through systematic assessment of existing initiatives is still in the beginning phases, and it is still not clear whether actions are matching promises. While there is broad recognition of the fact that successful development is difficult without thorough assessment of accountability and effectiveness, substantive support for rigorous evaluation is lacking within the global aid community. In its most recent application cycle, 3ie received over 200 proposals of which 39 were judged to be high quality – but 3ie only had enough money to finance about half of them. DFID, the Gates Foundation and Hewlett Foundation have given generously to 3ie. I’m hoping that with increasing recognition of the value of 3ie’s important function, other bilateral agencies and foundations will start providing similar levels of commitment. It’s time!
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One Response to “Evaluation Agency Created by CGD Shares “Best in Aid” Award”
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March 27th, 2010 at 11:00 am
It’s great to see this recognition, and it’s clear that the existence of 3ie and the generous funding of its supporters are making a big difference in the supply of high quality impact evaluations.
That said, I think we have to be careful about declaring anything “best” before we see whether it’s achieving real impact. In the case of 3ie, I’m going to be watching carefully to see whether and how the findings from the impact evaluations that are funded under this mechanism are used to inform policy and program-level decisions. Lots of other factors that come into play in shaping how research and evaluation findings are used, most outside the control of 3ie. But 3ie needs to keep its eye on making sure that the work it supports is as responsive to policy questions and disseminated in ways that make the findings accessible to the right audiences.