When
Will We Ever Learn? Improving Lives Through Impact
Evaluation
Final
report of the Evaluation Gap Working Group
Center
for Global Development -Washington, D.C. – May 31,
2006
Available online
as PDF file [95p.] at: http://www.cgdev.org/files/7973_file_WillWeEverLearn.pdf
“….Each year
billions of dollars are spent on thousands of programs to improve health,
education and other social sector outcomes in the developing world. But very
few programs benefit from studies that could determine whether or not they
actually made a difference. This absence of evidence is an urgent problem: it
not only wastes money but denies poor people crucial support to improve their
lives.
This report by
the Evaluation Gap Working Group provides a strategic solution to this problem
addressing this gap, and systematically building evidence about what works in
social development, proving it is possible to improve the effectiveness of
domestic spending and development assistance by bringing vital knowledge into
the service of policymaking and program design.
….”
Evaluation
Gap Working Group
Co-chairs: William
D. Savedoff, Ruth Levine, Nancy Birdsall
Members: François
Bourguignon, Esther Duflo, Paul Gertler, Judith Gueron, Indrani Gupta, Jean
Habicht, Dean Jamison, Daniel Kress, Patience
Kuruneri
David
I. Levine, Richard Manning, Stephen Quick, Blair Sachs, Raj Shah, Smita Singh,
Miguel Szekely, Cesar Victora
Project
coordinator: Jessica Gottlieb
Content:
Executive summary
I.
The lessons rarely learned
II.
The gap in impact evaluation
III.
Impact evaluations in the real world
IV.
Why good impact evaluations are rare
V.
Closing the evaluation gap—now
Appendices
References
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