See also details of our MSc in Impact Evaluation for International Development 

Objectives

Given the need for policymakers, programme implementing and funding organisations to justify their choice of social and economic interventions, it has become increasingly important to use 'evidence-based' criteria to decide what kind of programmes work, how, for whom, in what circumstances, and at what cost. Much evidence is quantitative in nature, and this course aims to equip those working in governments, funding agencies, research and non-government organisations to understand, critique and make effective use of such evidence.

 

While the course focuses on issues of attribution - tracing out cause and effect - and quantification, it is also concerned with the context, criteria and limitations of evidence-based quantitative evaluations. Staff involved in designing and implementing development programmes often find it useful to learn from and integrate impact evaluation (IE) mechanisms in their programmes in order to learn from, measure effectiveness of, and where possible, judge the replicability of interventions. The course therefore aims to address an important prerequisite for incorporating IE into programme design: a theoretical and practical understanding of IE approaches to enable selection of appropriate methodologies, coupled with careful appraisal of the resulting evidence. Thus, participants will be introduced to current quantitative as well as qualitative evaluation techniques for impact evaluation and gain critical understanding of the roles they can play in the design and assessment of public policy and development interventions.

Teaching will consist of interactive lectures, group discussions and several worked-through examples where participants will analyse data from established IE examples that are drawn from the development literature and elsewhere. The course will be taught by IE experts from the School of International Development and the Overseas Development Institute with external speakers from 3ie.

Course content
 

• Theories and practices of evaluation in public policy
•  The evaluation problem
  • Attribution, selection and placement biases
• Evaluation research designs
  • Observational data, quasi-experiments and correlation studies
  • Social experiments, natural experiments and randomised control trials
  • Qualitative evaluation designs
  • Evaluation survey design
• Econometric techniques for impact evaluation
  • Revision of basic econometrics
  • Instrumental variables technique
  • Propensity score matching
  • Regression discontinuity
  • Difference-in-difference estimation
• Communication and dissemination of evaluation evidence
• Systematic reviews and meta-analysis in development
• Replication and research ethics

Tutors

Tutors will be drawn from IE experts with many years of practical engagement with international development from the School of International Development and the Overseas Development Institute, and may include Edward Anderson, Ben D’Exelle, Maren Duvendack, Lucio Esposito, Bereket Kebede, Richard Palmer-Jones, Pieter Serneels, and Arjan Verschoor. Guest presentations include experts from 3ie and possibly other IE experts, as well as other (non-quantitative) social scientists involved in IE at UEA and representatives of agencies commissioning modern IE and evidence-based policy. This course has been developed by Richard Palmer-Jones who has long experience with evaluations in development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, especially irrigation, agriculture and poverty reduction, and Maren Duvendack who is a development economist with expertise in quantitative impact evaluations and has written a PhD “Smoke and Mirrors: Evidence from Microfinance Evaluations in India and Bangladesh”.

Institutional Capability

The School of International Development is particularly well constituted to provide a broad based multi-disciplinary environment in which to teach evidence-based policy because of the wide range of academic disciplines of faculty members and their intensive engagement in development practice through academic and funded research and consultancy in many development arenas and geographical regions.

How to apply for the course

For an application form email devco.train@uea.ac.uk or apply online by clicking here.

International Development UEA is a charitable company that has pioneered research, training and consultancy in International Development since 1967.

International Development UEA manages both the UK-based and international project activities of the University of East Anglia’s School of International Development, as well as work undertaken in partnership with other Schools. Our clients include national and international development agencies, governments, NGOs, international research centres and private clients.

Skills Development and Training Office
International Development UEA
University of East Anglia
Norwich, NR4 7TJ,UK

Email: devco.train@uea.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1603 592340
Fax: +44 1603 591170