What is the Pakistan Data and Evidence Lab?
The Pakistan Data and Evidence Lab (DEL) generates and disseminates evidence to support Pakistan’s long-term development goals, aligned with the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for FY26 up to FY35. This framework focuses on six key areas: reducing child stunting, addressing learning poverty, increasing resilience to climate change, improving the mobilization of public resources for inclusive development, boosting productive private investment, and enhancing human capital. By prioritizing data-driven decision-making, the CPF seeks to advance these critical development outcomes. The DEL is a collaboration between the World Bank’s Poverty Global Department and the South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL).
Collaboration Across Pillars for Greater Impact
Through three core pillars—strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems, improving the National Statistical System, and conducting rigorous impact evaluations—the Lab generates high-quality evidence with a focus on gender outcomes and rigorously evaluating development programs. These efforts foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptive decision-making, helping guide policies and interventions that lead to more inclusive and sustainable development outcomes for Pakistan.
The three pillars of the Pakistan Data and Evidence Lab operate in alignment to ensure a unified and practical approach to addressing the country’s development challenges.
By collaborating across these pillars, the Lab promotes a continuous feedback loop. Data from Pillars 1 and 2 inform the evaluations in Pillar 3, and insights from Pillar 3 help refine monitoring systems and data collection efforts. This integrated approach fosters better coordination, enhances the impact of development initiatives, and supports the overall objectives of the CPF.
How Is Data Leveraged to Drive Meaningful Change?
Pillar 1: M&E | Strengthening Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) for Smarter Decisions
The first pillar focuses on strengthening M&E practices to improve how the World Bank tracks and measures the success of its projects. By enhancing M&E, the pillar ensures the effective use of data to inform decisions, increase program impact and support the objectives of the CPF. It supports project teams in designing clear, measurable goals, monitoring progress, and adjusting plans as needed while developing tools like dashboards to track real-time data.
A key initiative under this pillar is the “Listening to Pakistan” (L2PAK) survey, which collects frequent data through mobile phone surveys to provide up-to-date insights into Pakistan’s socio-economic conditions. These surveys help track rapid changes, providing policymakers with the timely information needed to respond effectively. Ultimately, this pillar ensures that data informs decisions, helping the World Bank and partners to take smarter and more responsive actions to support Pakistan’s development.
Pillar 2: Data as Public Good | Unlocking the Power of Data for Development
The second pillar focuses on making data in Pakistan more accessible and valuable for better decision-making. By working with key Government institutions, the goal is to improve data quality and fill in gaps that are limiting progress. This effort aims to better connect different data sources, ensure data systems follow global standards, and ensure the data collected helps monitor and guide development effectively.
A significant part of this work is supporting federal and provincial agencies in improving data collection and use. It also focuses on helping local stakeholders, like government officials, researchers, and community groups, make the most of the data available. Additionally, using administrative data will help guide the development priorities in Pakistan’s Country Partnership Framework, ensuring that decisions align with the country’s goals for growth and improvement.
Pillar 3: Impact Evaluations | Measuring What Works: Impact Evaluations for Progress
The third pillar uses rigorous research to understand what works best in addressing Pakistan’s challenges. Led by the South Asia Region’s Social Development Practice and the SAR GIL, this pillar invests in impact evaluations (IEs) to measure the effectiveness of projects and policies. These evaluations provide evidence to future decisions, ensuring that programs deliver real, lasting results. A strong emphasis is placed on addressing gender gaps, ensuring that projects are inclusive, and considering the diverse needs of different communities.
This pillar builds on 19 ongoing SAR GIL IEs in Pakistan, which will become part of the new Pakistan Data and Evidence Lab portfolio. These evaluations help refine the design and implementation of future projects by providing insights into what works and what doesn't. The process includes evaluating current World Bank projects, testing innovative ideas that could be scaled up if proven successful, and evaluating independent initiatives by government or non-government organizations. A mix of methods, including surveys and data analysis, are used to track the impact of these interventions.
The findings from these evaluations are shared with policymakers and project teams to guide better decision-making. Moreover, the results will help inform the Pakistan Country Partnership Framework, supporting policies and programs that align with Pakistan’s goals and have a tangible impact on people’s lives. Integrating these IEs into the new Pakistan Data and Evidence Lab’s portfolio ensures a comprehensive and evidence-driven approach to addressing key development challenges.
