Impact Evaluation for Evidence-Based Policy in Development Course

The course aimed to address an important prerequisite for incorporating impact evaluation (IE) into programme design: a theoretical and practical understanding of IE approaches to enable selection of appropriate methodologies, coupled with careful appraisal of the resulting evidence. The course introduced participants to current quantitative as well as qualitative evaluation techniques for impact evaluation and gave them an insight into the critical understanding of the roles they can play in the design and assessment of public policy and development interventions. The group enthusiastically tackled the difficulties of learning STATA, NVIVO and the intricacies of evaluation research designs and econometric techniques, all bolstered by the support of the experienced teaching team.

Target Participants

This course is targeted at researchers, project staff, managers, development practitioners, policy makers in government, NGOs and development organizations who want to determine the impact of their interventions.

What you will learn

By the end of this course the participants will be able to:

• Learn about theories and practices of impact evaluation
• Learn about evaluation problem: Attribution, selection and placement biases
• Understand IE designs: randomized, quasi and non-experimental
• Conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of a project
• Conduct sampling and power calculation
• Learn and practice econometric techniques for impact evaluation
• Carry out impact data analysis using Propensity Matching and Difference-in -Difference
• Report and disseminate impact evaluation findings

Course Outline

• Overview of M and E Fundamentals for Impact Evaluation
• Results Framework
• M and E Project Indicators
• Logical Framework
• Performance Evaluation

Introduction to Impact Evaluation

• Defining impact evaluation
• Deciding whether to evaluate
• Attribution in impact evaluation
• Contribution vs attribution

Determining points of Impact Evaluation

• Types of evaluation questions
• Theories of Change
• The results chain
• Evaluation hypothesis

Impact evaluation indicators

• Counterfactuals in Impact Evaluation
• Causal reference
• Comparison groups and counterfactuals
• Estimating counterfactual in impact evaluation
• Impact Evaluation when a Comparison and Baseline Data are not available

Impact Evaluation Research Designs

• Experimental Design
• Randomized Control Trials
• Quasi experimental designs
• Regression Discontinuity
• Difference-in-Difference
• Matching
• Non-experimental designs

Sampling in Impact Evaluation

• Sampling techniques in Impact Evaluation
• Sample size calculation,
• Sampling weight
• Statistical power
• Constructing valid comparison groups

Quantitative Data Analysis for Impact Evaluation

• Randomized Impact Evaluation
• Setting the counterfactual
• Statistical Design of Randomization
• Impacts of Program Placement
• Impacts of Program Participation
• Capturing Both Program Placement and Participation
• Measuring Spill over Effects

Propensity Score Matching Technique (PSM)

• Introduction to PSM
• Application of PSM in Impact Evaluation
• Constructing propensity scores
• Matching Analysis (Nearest-Neighbour, Stratification, Radius, Kernel)
• Common support
• Doubly Robust Estimation

Difference in Difference Method

• What is DID?
• Application of DID in Impact Evaluation
• Estimating DID estimator: Single DID, DID with covariates, Quantile DID
• DID for Cross-Sectional Data
• Balancing Tests
• Diff-in-Diff with Propensity Score Matching

Qualitative Approaches in Impact Evaluation

• Most Significant Change
• Outcome Mapping
• Outcome Harvesting
• Appreciative Inquiry

Producing and Disseminating Impact Evaluation findings

• Impact Evaluation Plan
• Impact Evaluation Reports: Baseline report, Impact Evaluation Reports
• Case studies

Note

• All our courses can be Tailor-made to participants needs
• Course duration is flexible, and the contents can be modified to fit any number of days.
• Presentations are well guided, practical exercise, web-based tutorials and group work. Our facilitators are expert with more than 10years of experience.
• One-year free Consultation and Coaching provided after the course.