The setting for this good-natured training guide for impact evaluation is the fictional developing country Labas. Twelve months ago the government introduced an antipoverty program in Northwest Labas with support from the World Bank. The program aims to provide cash transfers to poor families with school-age children. To be eligible to receive the transfer, households must have observable characteristics that suggest they are poor. To continue receiving the transfer, they must keep their children in school until 18 years of age. The program is called PROSCOL.
The government wants to assess PROSCOL's impact on poverty, to help decide whether the program should be expanded or dropped. The Finance Minister asks the undersecretary, and the under-secretary calls in Ms. Speedy Analyst.
Ms. Speedy Analyst's on-the-job training in how to assess the impact of a social program provides the vehicle through which this paper explains:
This paper - a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to provide useful training tools for Bank staff. Copies of the paper are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433. Please contact Patricia Sader, room MC4-773, telephone 202-473-3902, fax 202-522-1153, Internet address psader@worldbank.org. The author may be contacted at mravallion@worldbank.org. (40 pages)
The full report is available in PDF format.