Integrating Evidence into Policy Making Ritwik Sarkar International - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Integrating Evidence into Policy Making Ritwik Sarkar

International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) 5th International Conference on Responsive Evaluation, Colombo Sri Lanka Evaluation Association ( SLEvA)

“Price of light is less than the cost

• f darkness”

(Arthur Nielsen)

• With limited resources, it is not enough for policy organizations

to report how much money has been spent or what output have been attained

• Effect of intervention and its outcome needs to be established
• With competing budgeting needs – officials need to make the

case for a programme to their superiors, line ministries to Ministry of Finance and ultimately the Ministers to the citizens

• Right question :
• Whether an intervention has achieved its intended
• bjectives in terms of the net changes in development
• utcomes.
• Can I make the case to the finance ministry?

Why is evidence needed for policy making?

• Multiple interventions have potential to solve same problem.
• Hypothetical Scenario: Interventions to reduce high drop out rates among girls in secondary

schools

Policy makers grapple with real life policy choices on a daily basis.

Stipend for girls attendance to secondary schools Households have additional income Additional income pays for cost of education and substitutes for potential wages that the girls could earn Incentivize parents to send their children to school Reduction in drop outs and regular attendance of children in schools Increase in years of education of girls Provide nutritional meals to children enrolled in schools Incentivize parents to send their girls to school Improvement in nutritional

• utcomes in children

Children are healthy and able to concentrate in class room activities Reduction in drop -outs and increase in regular attendance of children in schools Increase in years of education of girls

• Impact : What is the change caused by an intervention/policy?
• The measured change that was caused by the

intervention for the intended population

• Cost-effectiveness - If the two interventions are effective in this

hypothetical scenario, which one is the most cost effective way to bring about the desired change?

What does Impact Evaluation Answer?

Photo@STARS_Kristian Buus

• Founded in 2008, 3ie is an international grant-

making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes.

• 3ie provides grants for implementing impact

evaluations

• Funded

by Bilateral and Multilateral Organizations

International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

• Generate high quality evidence of what works
• Synthesise and disseminate this evidence
• Build a culture of evidence-based policy-making
• Develop capacity to produce and use impact evaluations

3ie was established to…

Photo@World Bank/Save the children

The major funding windows currently in operation are

• Open Windows
• Thematic Window
• Policy Window

3ie funds impact evaluations through different grant windows

Photo@JPAL/Bangladesh

Window Total I E s Budget Amount OW 1 18 4.2 OW2 31 14.9 OW3 22 9.0 OW4 19 8.3 TW 71 36.2 PW 20 9.42

Total 180 82

3ie Funding Windows

OW 1 10% OW2 17% OW3 12% OW4 11% TW 39% PW 11%

Funding Windows

• Provides evidence support for developing country

governments and funds rigorous mixed method IE s

• Demand Driven: Demand for evidence regarding

the effectiveness of a programme or policy comes directly from the agency implementing it.

• 3ie southern members eligible

Policy Window

Policy Window 11 Countries, 20 Impact Evaluations

Morocco Senegal South Africa Uganda Egypt Kenya India Philippines China Kyrgyzstan

• Launched in August 2015. Funded by DFID (USD 0 .78m)

.

• Responsive – Demand from the Office of the Prime

Minister (OPM)

• Objective: Develop capacity in the government to design

and conduct/commission IEs

• Buy-in from both top management and middle-level civil

servants for evaluating their programmes

• Ultimately, governments increasingly see IEs as a tool for

accountability and is willing to fund IEs through national budget.

Uganda Country Policy Window

• Formative / process evaluations and IE designs on questions of

national importance identified by OPM

• Impact of Youth Livelihood Program implemented by Govt of Uganda
• Effectiveness of Family Planning Program.
• How effective are public service delivery in Uganda?
• How effective is the Universal primary education program in Uganda?

Uganda Country Policy Window

• Study exposure tour for 8 comprising of civil servants, civil

society leaders to Mexico and Columbia

• IE workshop for government officers implementing development

programmes

• Bursaries for attending international IE evaluation conferences

and workshops

• All study teams will include local researchers who will be

involved in a substantive capacity in evaluation design

• A locally recruited Senior Evaluation Specialist will mentor OPM

staff in their day to day evaluation work through on the job training

Uganda Policy Window: Capacity Building planned through multiple modalities

• The project will support various

channels for placing evidence in the public domain

• A regular monthly OPM-UEA

evaluation seminar series to present planned, on-going and completed evaluations.

• Working

with journalists to promote articles, features and OpEds

• n

evidence in print media, and possible TV and radio.

• Support to existing social media

channels utilized by the research and evaluation community to be more active

Uganda Policy Window- Making evidence available and accessible

Photo@russavia

• Funded by Govt. of Australia (Aus $2.8m)
• Steering Committee chaired by the Minister for Planning,
• Govt. of Philippines
• Deliverables include four IEs, in-country delivery of IE

course, demand generation workshop and policy influence clinics.

• MoUs signed and RFQs launched
• Dept. of Social Welfare and Development, and
• Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
• Full grant for IE given for an IE for Department of Labour

and Employment

Philippines Country Policy Window

• Require grantees to submit a

Policy Influence Plan, which identifies what changes in attitude, discourse, procedures, policy content or legislation, or behaviours, and which key policy stakeholders or champions they are targeting.

• Documented a total of 48 cases
• f use of evidence from

3ie-funded studies

From Evidence to Influence

Photo@CIMMYT D. Mowbray, IRRI

Policy Influence from 3ie Funded Studies

Source@3ie Annual report 2014

Please visit: www.3ieimpact.org

Thank you