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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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January 29, 2010Impact Evaluation Has Come So Far!Posted by William Savedoff in Evaluation, Evaluation Gap, Global Development
If you had asked me whether this would happen back in 2004 when Ruth Levine, Nancy Birdsall and I started the Evaluation Gap Initiative, I’m not sure I would have been so optimistic. Read More… Comment »December 17, 2009Linking Aid to Results: Why Are Some Development Workers Anxious? (Guest post by Owen Barder)Posted by Nancy Birdsall in Aid Effectiveness, Cash on Delivery Aid, Education, Evaluation, Global Development Tags: Aid Effectiveness, Cash on Delivery Aid, COD aid, Foreign Aid Reform, resultsI am pleased to share with our readers at Owen’s request this discussion of Cash on Delivery Aid, which appeared yesterday on his blog, Owen Abroad. Linking Aid to Results: Why Are Some Development Workers Anxious? The Center for Global Development is working on an idea which they call Cash on Delivery aid, in which donors make a binding commitment to developing country governments to provide aid according to the outputs that the government delivers. I think this is a good idea in principle, and hope that it can be tested to see whether and how it could work in practice. The UK Conservative party have said in their Green Paper that if they are elected they will use Cash on Delivery to link aid to results. Linking aid more closely to results is attractive from many different perspectives. My own view is that linking aid directly to results will help to change the politics of aid for donors. Many of the most egregiously ineffective behaviours in aid are a direct result of donors’ (very proper) need to show to their taxpayers how money has been used. Because traditional aid is not directly linked to results, donors end up focusing on inputs and micromanaging how aid is spent instead, with all the obvious consequences for transactions costs, poor alignment with developing countries systems and priorities and lack of harmonisation. If we could link aid more directly to results, I think donors will be freed from many of the political pressures they currently face to deliver aid badly; and it would be politically easier to defend large increases in aid budgets. 11 Comments »September 15, 2009The Illusion of EqualityPosted by Lant Pritchett in Education, Evaluation, Global Development, Global Education, Inequality Tags: centralization, Education, Evaluation, InequalityCGD recently posted my working paper, The Illusion of Equality, co-authored by Martina Viarengo. The motivations behind the paper go back to when I was a kid. When people were coming to our house, my mother would put us five children to work trying to clean up because “company” was coming. And when company was there, we were put on our best behavior (or out of sight). I remember asking my mom one time (out of laziness not sincerity): “But, Mom, don’t we want these people to know how we really live and what we are really like?” My mom’s quick reply: “You think I want people to know I have a son like you? Get to work.” Read More… 2 Comments »February 5, 2009Addressing GDN Conference, Howard White Welcomes Developing Country Research Participation in 3iePosted by Lawrence MacDonald in Evaluation, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: EvaluationHoward White, executive director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation or 3ie, told participants in the tenth annual conference of the Global Development Network here in Kuwait that he looks forward to researchers in developing countries playing a major role in 3ie impact evaluations of development interventions. “I hope that the 3ie will provide opportunities for researchers affiliated with the GDN and others in developing countries to engage much more closely in carrying out high-quality impact evaluations,” he said. 1 Comment »November 26, 2008Hard Times Call for Hard Data: India and UK Will Work Together to RespondPosted by Ruth Levine in Evaluation, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: EvaluationAmidst the profound concerns about a lengthy economic downturn (or worse), public officials are taking measures to improve the effectiveness of public dollars — or public rupees, as the case may be. Comment »May 30, 2008New GAO Report is Food for Thought — And ActionPosted by Rachel Nugent in Africa, Evaluation, Food Aid, Food Crisis, Migration and Labor Mobility, Regions, United Nations Tags: Food Crisis, GAO, Sub-Saharan Africa, World HungerA new GAO Report on international food security (International Food Security: Insufficient Efforts by Host Governments and Donors Threaten Progress to Halve Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015) gets it almost completely right when it points to the feeble, self-defeating, and confused U.S. policies on world hunger. The report diplomatically states: Comment »December 19, 2007Howard White Selected as First Head of the New International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3IE)Posted by Ruth Levine in Evaluation, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: EvaluationOur efforts toward more and better impact evaluation of development programs made a major advance this week with the announcement that Howard White, who has dedicated his career to building evidence about development effectiveness, has accepted the position as the first director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (see the CGD initiative: Closing the Evaluation Gap). This culminates a broad international search (conducted by an excellent team at the London-based executive search firm of Heidrick & Struggles), and represents a very promising and concrete step toward the launch of the 3IE, an entity that will bring new financial and technical resources to conduct and disseminate impact evaluations around the world. Howard comes to the leadership position with a genuine vision for the role that evidence-building can play in making the most of the precious resources available for improving lives and livelihoods in the developing world. Comment »October 5, 2007Gregory Clark’s Farewell to Alms: It’s Not What You ThinkPosted by Lawrence MacDonald in Evaluation, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: EvaluationCGD yesterday hosted a lively book chat with Gregory Clark, author of a provocative new book, A Farewell To Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. Clark, a British academic who is the chair of the economics department at the University of California at Davis, was witty and charming as he proposed a theory of economic growth that implied that most of the development work going on in the world is wrong-headed and doomed to fail. 2 Comments »March 1, 2007A New Impact Evaluation Institution to Promote Learning for DevelopmentPosted by Ruth Levine in Aid Effectiveness, Evaluation, Global Health, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: Evaluation
5 Comments »September 22, 2006NYC Cash Transfer Plan and the Power of Impact EvaluationPosted by Ruth Levine in Aid Effectiveness, Evaluation, Global Health, Migration and Labor Mobility Tags: EvaluationWhen New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-poverty commission recommended this week that the city pay poor people to send their kids to school and keep up-to-date on immunizations ( 9 Comments »September 21, 2006Nicholas Kristof Reviews Easterly’s White Man’s Burden – and Summarizes Foreign Aid ConundrumPosted by Administrator in Aid Effectiveness, Evaluation, Global Health, Global Health Policy, Globalization, Migration and Labor Mobility, World Trade Organization Tags: EvaluationThe New York Review of Books’ Aid: Can it Work? is a wide-ranging review of Bill Easterly’s recent book The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Easterly discussed his book at a CGD event last March, transcript available.) Much more than an informed book review, Nicholas Kristof’s article paints an excellent picture of the state of the debate on foreign aid. In sum, “The conundrum facing the rich countries is that everywhere in the developing world, and particularly in Africa, you see children dying for want of pennies, while it’s equally obvious that aid often doesn’t work very well.” Comment » |
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Last week, I attended the board meeting of 
“Countries know where they want to be, but they may not know the best way of getting there. We would like to see the development of a new institution which can help us generate and use impact evaluation findings and help build capacity within our country to develop evidence and answer some of our enduring questions.” –Margaret Kakande, Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
