Impact Evaluation presentation slides by Howard White

The slides from Dr. Howard White's presentation on Impact Evaluation are now available.

SAMEA was fortunate in hosting Dr. Howard White, the Executive Director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), based in Cairo, Egypt (http://www.3ieimpact.org/).

Dr White was the former secretariat to the Network of Networks on Impact Evaluation (NONIE), a global network of donors and partner countries seeking to improve understanding of impact evaluation. He is an internationally renowned expert in impact evaluation and had previously led the impact evaluation programme of the World Bank,. He has provided direction on poverty training for 2 000 DFID staff members at country offices around the worked, published 50 papers in internationally refereed journals, and is the managing editor of the Journal of Development Studies. He has had working experience in countries across the USA, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has also lectured at the Institute of Social Studies in Applied Quantitative Economics in the Hague and served as a Fellow at the Institute of development Studies at the University of Sussex.

Impact evaluation is the last phase in the M&E cycle, and seeks to answer fundamental questions, i.e. “What effect did a policy intervention have?” Given the complexities of this type of evaluation, impact evaluations are not often conducted, resulting in little insight into the true benefit of programmes. This means that policies and other interventions are not properly assessed, and in the absence of reflection and revision, we may be missing the intention set out in the intervention goals or unintended effects of an intervention. It is important that M&E practitioners understand this aspect, as it will empower them to improve their practice and raise the bar of M&E. With this in mind, SAMEA deems it appropriate to bring in someone who is at the cutting edge internationally on the subject, to share his ideas and stimulate debate on the subject.

Presentations:

1. Presentation by Howard White on the work of NONIE and 3ie
2. Presentation on impact evaluation methodologies: Strengths and weaknesses