A regional impact evaluation workshop entitled "Evaluating the Impact of Development Programs: Turning Promises into Evidence" was held in Seoul, South Korea from Dec 3-6, 2012, hosted by the Human Development Network's Chief Economist's Office, the World Bank's East Asia Region and the Korea Development Institute (KDI). Funding was provided by the SIEF trust fund and KDI. This was the third annual workshop organized collaboratively between the World Bank and KDI. The partnership with KDI has successfully trained hundreds of policymakers in the East Asia region as well as enabled the launch of an Impact Evaluation Lab within KDI to promote impact evaluation in the region. SIEF is generously supported by the British Government's Department for International Development.

The workshop attracted over 110 participants representing 13 projects covering a range of sectors and sub-sectors in Education, Health, Social Protection, and Water and Sanitation. The workshop drew participants from 10 countries in the region, including Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Taiwan and Vietnam. Many were government officials at the program management level, a key target group for the SIEF workshops.

The purpose of the workshop was to build knowledge on the use of impact evaluation among policymakers and program managers and allow operational teams to apply this knowledge to the design and implementation of program-specific impact evaluations. The workshop combined intensive training in impact evaluation methods with hands-on clinics to fully integrate impact evaluations into Human Development operations. Throughout the week, project teams worked in small groups facilitated by World Bank moderators. This approach allowed the provision of tailored support and the direct application of tools and global knowledge to project-specific contexts. All workshop materials are available in this ebook.