Transforming Development through Impact Evaluation
Impact Evaluation to Development Impact (i2i) is a World Bank multi-donor trust fund program launched in March 2014 with support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). i2i’s mandate is to generate high-quality and operationally relevant impact evaluation (IE) research to transform development policy, help reduce extreme poverty and secure shared prosperity.
From March 2015 to March 2016, i2i launched four thematic programs to build capacity for IE design and implement and develop portfolios of IEs in the areas of: (1) Fragility, Conflict, and Violence, (2) Agriculture, (3) Energy and Environment, and (4) Governance. During this year, i2i developed two additional thematic programs in the areas of: (5) Trade and Competitiveness/Finance and Markets and (6) Transport and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Across its portfolio of six programs, i2i selected and supported 135 IEs (84 new and 51 ongoing), exceeding its portfolio target of 117 IEs.
The current portfolio of IEs covers 59 countries where the World Bank Group is operational and is distributed across the various i2i pillars: Shared Prosperity (59 IEs), Governance (27 IEs), Climate Change (26 IEs), and Fragility, Conflict and Violence (23 IEs). At least 25 IEs (19 percent of the portfolio) evaluate gender-specific interventions and 68 (51 percent of the portfolio) conduct disaggregated gender analyses.
In terms of design, 101 IEs supported (76 percent of the portfolio) adopt experimental methods, 18 IEs (14 percent) use both experimental and non-experimental methods, while 14 IEs (11 percent) have non-experimental designs. Over 70 percent of IEs funded by i2i test more than one treatment arm.
The results to date are encouraging, but there remain important challenges to realizing the full potential of IE research. These challenges include addressing research-capacity constraints, coordination failures and transaction costs to establish researcher–policymaker relationships and taking on issues of implementation of policies and programs at scale.
The i2i operating model is designed to overcome these challenges and maximize both the private and public good value of IE. This is done through (i) a programmatic approach to using IE knowledge for more effective policy; (ii) matching policymakers with researchers from the outset; (iii) building project-specific research teams to implement IEs in collaboration with government agencies; (iv) emphasizing technical quality control and policy relevance; and (v) ensuring a project-specific aspect to global dissemination and policy outreach. i2i works to improve the state of knowledge and effectiveness of policy around the world. All i2i-supported IEs build on ongoing and completed work to create virtuous cycles of learning and policy impact.
The full report is available here.
Last Updated: Sep 01, 2016