1. Towards a Research Agenda for Impact
Evaluation of Development
Impact, Innovation and Learning: Towards a Research and
Practice Agenda for the Future conference
Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK
26-27 March 2013
Professor Patricia Rogers
RMIT University (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), Australia
Patricia.Rogers@rmit.edu.au

2. 2

3. 3
Research
Agenda
Practice
Agenda

4. Towards a research agenda
for impact evaluation in development
1. What it needs to cover
2. What is needed to develop it
3. Types of research needed
4. Some burning research questions
5. What is needed to develop and enact it

5. Filling in the map
of impact evaluation in development

6. 1.What the research agenda
needs to cover
Types of development impact evaluation
Scale Individual evaluations, evaluations of multiple projects in a
program, evaluation systems
Purpose Identify ‘best buys’, understand how to scale up and translate
effective programs, understand how to improve effectiveness
Questions Does it work? What works? What does it take for it to work? What
works for whom in what circumstances? Is it working?
Users Donors, implementing agencies, policymakers, regional
associations, communities
Done by External evaluators, internal evaluators, managers and staff,
communities

7. 7
7
MANAGE
DEFINE
FRAME
UNDERSTAND
CAUSES
SYNTHESIZE
REPORT &
SUPPORT USE
DESCRIBE
CDC Evaluation Framework with BetterEvaluation components overlaid
1.What the research agenda
needs to cover
Aspects of development impact evaluation

8. 1.What the research agenda
needs to cover

9. 1.What the research agenda
needs to cover

11. 2.What is needed to develop
the research agenda
Consultations with Different parties involved in conducting, managing, using
and being affected by impact evaluation
Consultations about Gaps in knowledge, issues, priorities, opportunities
Review of Documentation and guidance for development impact
evaluation – and impact evaluation generally
Issues and challenges in impact evaluation for development
Previous research into impact evaluation
Potential methods, tools and approaches from other areas of
evaluation and research
Promising examples and recent innovations in development
impact evaluation

12. 3.Types of research needed
Documenting practice Retrospectively, concurrently; good practice, problematic
practice; micro-interactions; decision-making heuristics;
Positive deviance Learning by intended users from success cases
Trials To address particular issues through various
tools/methods/strategies
Trials Of possible uses for particular tools/methods/strategies
Longitudinal studies Of the impact of impact evaluation
Supporting interdisciplinary communities of practice
Knowledge translation To other contexts (sectors, organisations, roles)

13. OVERALL
1. How do we do impact evaluation that actually
supports development?
2. How do we support all agents of development,
including communities, to be reflective and empirical
about the impact of their work?
3. Why does so much development impact evaluation
fail to be informed by what has been learned about
effective evaluation?
4. Some burning research
questions

14. MANAGE an evaluation or evaluation
system
4. What are effective ways to support communities to have
genuine involvement in decision making about
evaluations?
5. How can an evaluation accommodate different ideas about
what constitutes credible evidence among intended
users?
6. When should different strategies be used for developing
an evaluation design (as part of the brief, as part of the
proposal, as a separate project)?
7. How can an evaluation design best accommodate
emerging issues?
8. How can organisations working in the same region share
information and data collection?
8b What are options for funding public interest evaluations
not under the control of the powerful?

15. DEFINE what is to be evaluated
9. How can a theory of change/program theory effectively
represent complicated aspects of interventions
(multiple layers, components and partners and
complex aspects (adaptability, emergence)?
10.How can an organisation support projects to have
locally specific theories of change/program theory that
are still widely coherent?
11.What are effective strategies for identifying possible
negative impacts in advance?
12.What investments and activities are the subjects of
evaluation? What examination is made of others?

16. FRAME the boundaries of the evaluation
13. What are effective processes for developing good
Key Evaluation Questions – in terms of likely to be
useful and feasible?
14. How can implicit values about results, processes and
distribution of benefits be made explicit?
14b How can evaluations deal with ‘undiscussables’ – eg
actual unstated program objectives, unaddressed
poor performance?

17. DESCRIBE activities, outcomes,
impacts, context
15.When is purposeful sampling most appropriate, and how
can it be used validly and effectively?
16.How can long-term results be followed up?
17.How can unanticipated negative outcomes and impacts be
identified and addressed in data collection and reporting?
18.How can reasonable intermediate outcomes be identified
for an evaluation that will end before impacts are evident?
19.How can Big Data be used effectively for development
impact evaluation?
19b What standard measures and indicators should be used
for common outcomes and impacts of interest?

18. UNDERSTAND CAUSES of outcomes and
impacts
20.What are credible methods and strategies for non-
experimental causal inference in development
impact evaluations?

19. SYNTHESISE data from one or more
evaluations
21.How can different values be accommodated in
developing an overall evaluative judgement?
22.How can systematic reviews which don’t exclude
materials in terms of a hierarchy of evidence deal
with the large number of potentially relevant sources?

20. REPORT AND SUPPORT USE
23.How can a development impact evaluation respond to
significant changes in the intended users during the
course of an evaluation?
24.How can a development impact evaluation provide a
coherent message without only focusing on average
effects?
25.What are effective strategies for supporting use of
development impact evaluation, especially in difficult
situations – eg fragile states, changing decision
makers?
25b What process and structures can be created to
protect those ‘speaking truth to power’?

21. 5.What is needed to develop
and enact a research agenda
Legitimacy
Resources, especially complementary to existing resources
Interdisciplinary co-operation
‘Creative abrasion’