"Managing Impact Evaluations" (Part II) of Impact Evaluations and Development. Bureau of Economic Growth, Education, and Environment Evaluator involvement in these decisions automatically steps away from the 'equal chance' proposition and introduces the possibility of bias (either deliberate or inadvertent) in the assignment process. 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. With all of these methods, all members of a population (or all members of a representative sample of a large population) have an equal chance of ending up in the intervention (or treatment) group. 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) … These requirements link to USAID’s reference to the need for parallel contractual arrangements for impact evaluations in some situations, as illustrated in the diagram below. Find out about career opportunities at USAID. 1. 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. In principle, the group or area that receives an intervention should be equivalent to the group or area that does not. 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. USAID's Microlinks Project captures new learning in microenterprise development and disseminates it among practitioners. 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. Both experimental and quasi-experimental designs can produce credible impact evaluation findings, but there is a difference, and their classifications signal what that difference is. There are many design options for impact evaluations depending on a variety of factors (see USAID Technical Note and OECD Principles for Impact Evaluation for helpful decision trees for design). 2016 (Five-Year) Report 2. Filed Under: Technical Resources, Guidance, Evaluation Missions initially identify which of their evaluations during a CDCS period will be impact evaluations and which will be performance evaluations in their PMP. Bureau of Economic Growth, Education, and Environment 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., some but not all firms engaged in exporting, or some but not all farms that grow a particular crop. Knowledge and experience in performance and impact evaluation designs, methodologies and practical applications, including baseline data collection methodologies required. 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. In general, prospective impact evaluations are more likely to produce strong and credible evaluation results. USAID is updating the 2013 Technical Note on Impact Evaluations. This method helps USAID staff understand if short-term impacts are sustained, or if theorized long-term impacts are realized. We provide monitoring, evaluation, strategic planning, and capacity building services to advance development effectiveness. Impact Evaluation of USAID's Crime and Violence Prevention Approach in Central America. Learn how you can get involved and lend a hand. 2013 Report(link is external) 3. 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. USAID Impact Evaluation of the Makhalidwe Athu Project (Zambia) Endline Report. For more information, please contact Paul Fekete. 2012 Report(link is external) The timeline for the start-up of a prospective Impact Evaluation is driven by the requirement, in most such evaluations, for the comparison group to be selected, and baseline data on both the project’s target (treatment) group and the comparison group to be collected before delivery of the intervention that is to be evaluated begins. USAID is conducting eight rigorous impact evaluations in Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania, and Zambia to test development questions relevant to eliminating extreme poverty, empowering women, enhancing food security, improving natural resource management, improving climate change mitigation and adaptation, mitigating conflict, and promoting democratic governance … Evaluators term this the counterfactual. ENDLINE IMPACT EVALUATION REPORT (FINAL) January 2016 This publication was produced at the request of the United States Agency for International Development. 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. This results in an impact evaluation that is classified as having a quasi-experimental design. 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. Running Randomized Evaluations: A Practical Guide This technical note build on USAID’s definition of an impact evaluation and explains the process USAID envisions for undertaking evaluations that involve rigorous experimental and quasi experimental designs. NORC was responsible for designing and conducting the impact evaluation for this project. This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. 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. 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. Prospective evaluations are developed at the same time as the program is being designed and are built into program implementation. This type of evaluation allows managers to test development hypotheses by comparing changes in one or more specific outcomes to changes that occur in the absence of the program. Office of Trade and Regulatory Reform It was prepared independently by NORC at the University of Chicago, under a subcontract with Mendez England & Associates. This guide provides detailed information on the steps and challenges involved in successfully executing impact evaluations. The school lunch, supported by USAID, was a high […] AID-617-C-16-00003 . USAID is committed to building the evidence base on what works through impact evaluations. The impact evaluation employs a Difference-in … USAID IMPACT EVALUATION OF THE MAKHALIDWE ATHU PROJECT (ZAMBIA) GC-10F-0033M/AID-OAA-M-13-00010. BETTER PROJECTS THROUGH IMPROVED The more certain we are that groups are equivalent at the start, the more confident we can be in claiming that any post-intervention difference is due to the project being evaluated. This illustrates the type of intervention monitoring needed in Impact Evaluations where there is site to site variation in the way an intervention is delivered. 2012 Report(link is external) Contract No. USAID was among the donor organizations that were asked to review both the Statement of Work and the product of this research. TIPS 19: Impact Evaluations: Rigorous impact evaluations are useful for determining the effects of USAID programs on outcomes. Office of Trade and Regulatory Reform Decisions about the specific data collection and analysis methods to be applied to address performance evaluations questions are an important step in the planning of every performance and impact evaluation, but the need not be made prematurely. It was prepared by . US Agency for International Development (USAID). Evaluation is the systematic collection and analysis of information about the characteristics and outcomes of strategies, projects, and activities conducted as a basis for judgments to improve effectiveness, and timed to inform decisions about current and future programming. 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., … 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. US Agency for International Development (USAID). PHOTO BY DAVID RINCK FOR SOCIAL IMPACT 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. Some USAID Missions are already doing this and, as was done in solicitations related to a governance project in Nepal, they are sometimes cross-referencing these solicitations and making both the Implementing Partner and the Impact Evaluation team responsible for (a) the assignment of target population units to treatment and comparison groups and (b) the collection of baseline and endline data on key outcome measures clear in both solicitations. Through the "USAID Learns" activity, Social Impact is supporting USAID/Vietnam to streamline monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) capacity across Mission teams, increase hands-on capacity building for local organizations and entities, implement innovative approaches, increase effective collaboration among stakeholders, and develop a highly utilized M&E system. 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. Last month, I met with those same four chiefs in Zambia to review our … To demonstrate the power of long-term evaluation, the team plans to conduct evaluations that assess the impacts of an aid intervention years after the project is completed. ADS 201 requires that each Mission and Washington OU must conduct an impact evaluation, if feasible, of any new, untested approach that is anticipated to be expanded in scale or scope through U.S. Government foreign assistance or other funding sources (i.e., a pilot intervention). The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. Evaluations at USAID include impact evaluations and performance evaluations. Funded by: USAID Country: Honduras Date Range: 2016 - 2021 Project Lead: Pulte Institute. 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. Whenever a prospective impact evaluation involving treatment and comparison groups is being considered, it is wise to undertake a power analysis to ensure that the number of units (people, locations) available for assignment to these groups is adequate to detect important differences between them. Under unusual circumstances, when a separate arrangement is infeasible, implementing partners may subcontract an impact evaluation of a project subcomponent. While many of the steps listed in the Impact Evaluation Process above parallel steps taken in conducting Performance Evaluations, several of these steps warrant special attention when an Impact Evaluation is being planned. 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. 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. BETTER PROJECTS THROUGH IMPROVED Impact evaluations can be divided into two categories: prospective and retrospective. USAID/Aprender a Ler Impact Evaluation: Final Report i This toolkit’s page on the decision to undertake and impact evaluation is located in that section and may be worth reviewing as Mission’s prepare more detailed Project MEL plans. Baseline data are collected prior to program implementation for both treatment and comparison groups. These key features, which affect decisions about the extent of intervention monitoring and study groups that will be needed, and thus evaluation cost, include, but are not necessarily limited to: These Impact Evaluation features are discussed in greater detail in a short briefing paper entitled Key Features of Impact Evaluations that Warrant Consideration at the Planning Stage. 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. The impact evaluation of MMT uses an experimental design whereby treatment and control schools were randomly selected. USAID Contract AID–486–I–14-00001 (IDIQ); AID–383–TO–17–00003 (Task Order) DISCLAIMER The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. 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. USAID requires that impact evaluations be conducted, if feasible, of any new, untested approach that is anticipated to be expanded in scale or scope through U.S. … 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. senior evaluation specialist, usaid evaluation and survey services (ess), haiti Administration, or other discipline related to development assistance required. 1. 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. Social Impact is a global development management consulting firm. Prospective impact evaluations that employ randomized assignment are classified as having experimental designs (also called randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Two NONIE publications featured on this page are particularly useful as is USAID’s Microlinks web guide, What are the Steps in Implementing an Impact Assessment? 2013 Report(link is external) 3. Supporting USAID Impact Evaluation in Honduras. Alternative methods should be utilized only when random assignment strategies are infeasible. 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. MONITORING, EVALUATION AND LEARNING, A toolkit developed and implemented by: Qualitative Impact The Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP), is a global United States Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperative agreement to introduce and support high-impact health interventions in 25 priority countries with the ultimate goal of ending preventable child and maternal deaths (EPCMD) within a generation. Find out about career opportunities at USAID. Make a general inquiry or suggest an improvement. Randomized assignment can be achieved in a number of ways including flipping a coin; computer generated assignments, or a lottery, where the number of participants is greater than the number that can draw tickets that assignment them to the intervention (or treatment) group. For this reason, USAID evaluation policy prefers a method for selecting a comparison group that is called randomized assignment, as this method for constructing groups that do and do not receive an intervention is more effective than any other when it comes to ensuring that groups are equivalent on a pre-intervention basis. 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. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal InferenceThis updated volume, by Shadish, Cook and Campbell, remains the basic text on what we today call impact evaluation design. For projects where an impact evaluation will be undertaken, a parallel contractual or grant agreement needs to be established at the inception that includes sufficient resources for data collection and analysis. USAID/UGANDA PERFORMANCE AND IMPACT EVALUATION FOR LITERACY ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION ACTIVITY (LARA) BASELINE DATA REPORT June 30, 2017; Final December 15, 2017 . In conjunction with impact evaluations Microlinks has conducted, the project has published an Impact Evaluation Primer Series that includes Common Problems in Impact Assessment Research and six other volumes. Students were assessed prior to the start of the intervention in April 2018 and again at the end of the intervention in July 2018. 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.. Retrospective impact evaluations assess program impact after the program has been implemented, generating treatment and comparison groups ex-post. While impact evaluations require a lot of work from a variety of stakeholders, the payoff in terms of improved programming can start at the baseline. For more information, please contact Paul Fekete. 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. 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. Given the work to be done before an Implementing Partner begins delivering the intervention the Impact Evaluation will examine, it is suggested that USAID issue a solicitation for an Impact evaluation team at the same time USAID issues the project-implementation solicitation. USAID How To Note Evaluation Statements of Work. By: Ruth Levine, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Policy, Planning and Learning In a major address today, Dr. Shah will announce USAID’s new evaluation policy, evidence of the renewed emphasis the Agency is placing on evaluation, measuring and documenting program achievements and shortcomings, and generating data on what works to drive decision-making. 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). This type of design may also be feasible when USAID projects introduce an intervention on a phased basis. The identification of a valid comparison group is critical for impact evaluations. When considering which type of evaluation design to choose, project design teams may find that using an Evaluation Design Decision Tree helps them work their way to the most appropriate option. Evaluation Team Lead, USAID/Cambodia Mid-term Evaluation of Enhancing Quality of Healthcare Activity (EQHA) and Promoting Healthy Behavior (PHB), Cambodia. ENDLINE REPORT (FINAL) February 2018. Randomized impact evaluation of Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme (NSP) Hypotheses and Methodology Make a general inquiry or suggest an improvement. USAID requires that the main types of evaluations to be undertaken during a CDCS period be specified in a PMP, noting that PMPs can and should be updated, as needed, to reflect additional evaluations a Mission schedules in response to facts that “trigger” supplem… U.S. Agency for International Development, Randomized impact evaluation of Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme (NSP) Hypotheses and Methodology, What are the Steps in Implementing an Impact Assessment, Project Evaluation Plan Summary Template >>, Confirm the Evaluability of the Intervention, Identify the Target Population, if not already determined, Prepare an Impact Evaluation Statement of Work (SOW), including Anticipated Method by Which Population Units will be Assigned to Groups, Identify and Engage an Impact Evaluation Team, Finalize Decisions about Method by Which Population Units will be Assigned to Groups (with the Impact Evaluation Team), Prepare a Detailed Evaluation Design and Data Collection/Analysis Plan (Impact Evaluation Team), Gather Baseline Data, on target population or a sample thereof (Impact Evaluation Team, potentially in collaboration with USAID’s Implementing Partner), Implement the Method for Assigning Population Units to Treatment and Comparison Groups (Impact Evaluation Team), Deliver the Intervention (USAID’s Implementing Partner), Monitor Intervention Delivery and Treatment/Comparison Group Issues (Impact Evaluation Team), Gather Endline Data on Groups (Impact Evaluation Team, potentially in collaboration with USAID’s Implementing Partner), Act on Evaluation Findings to Enhance USAID and Partner Development Effectiveness. 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. For many of the project-level interventions USAID determines warrant an Impact Evaluation, a timely start-up will involve completing half of the steps on the list of Impact Evaluation Process Steps shown listed below before USAID’s Implementing Partners for the project start delivering project services. Along this continuum, the preference in USAID's Evaluation Policy is clear: For impact evaluations, experimental methods generate the strongest evidence. NORC at the University of Chicago. 2016 (Five-Year) Report 2. 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