Existing evidence on what are the priority themes

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Existing evidence on what are the priority themes

• Howard White
• 3ie

2
The 3ie EQ exercise

• What is an EQ? getting the right level of
  specifity
• Making a long list general call resulted in 700
  questions
• Other sources of evidence reviewed below
• EQ briefs (see website)
• Medium-list consultations (on-line survey)

3
Sources of evidence

• Policy documents
• Participatory analysis
• Opinion survey
• Submissions

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Policy documents PRSPs

• Review of 60 PRSPs
• All sectors are priority, so have to go to
  sub-sector or theme level
• Priorities
• Education
• Agriculture
• WSS
• SMEs
• Health

5
Participatory analysis

• Existing documents (e.g. PPAs and Voices of the
  Poor volumes surprisingly silent)
• Early submission from Volta region Ghana
• Teachers education, employment roads
• Pupils computers, employment and education
• Commissioned own work in AP, findings
• Differences between leadership and poor
• Poor water, health and education (men also
  employment)
• Opinion leaders roads, GP facilities (cf common
  fund)
• Bottlenecks governance (factionalism)

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Opinion survey

• On line survey
• Over just two week period 1500 responses (though
  not all captured here)
• Priorities (some regional variation)
• Agriculture
• Human development
• Infrastructure development

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Submissions

• Uganda agriculture, health and education (but
  also cross-cutting includes social protection,
  decentralization and procurement)
• AusAid social protection, employment PPG,
  decentralization, overseas tertiary education
  (cross-cutting on aid management)
• Oxfam climate change (but focus is intersection
  of agriculture and vulnerability)
• Mexico Ministry of Health health! Specifically
  child health, health systems performance, and
  injuries and non-communicable diseases

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Conclusions from review

• Agriculture and human development come through
  consistently
• Governance (or accountability) matters
• Infrastructure, employment and issues related to
  vulnerability (social protection) also
  well-represented
• These cross-cut under some headings, e.g.
  employment guarantee schemes

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Principles for picking priorities

• Uncharted areas versus gap filling (or a mix)?
  (SR first for gap filling)
• 3ie evaluation criteria
• Amenable to rigorous IE
• Important interventions
• Lots of money and people
• Large impact
• Pilots
• Scalable and sustainable

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Existing work programs

• DIME clusters CCTs, early childhood
  development, education service delivery, HIV/AIDS
  treatment prevention, local development,
  malaria, rural roads, rural electrification,
  urban upgrading, and youth service and training
  programs.
• SIEF human development outcomes (not
  interventions)
• J-PAL generally social sector, especially
  education
• Public health, e.g. WSS and nutrition
• NONIE embarking on agricultural productivity

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Points to remember in picking questions

• Green versus brown field
• Degree of specifity
• Game changing
• Evaluable
• Dont be bound by sectors (cross-cutting)

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Green field examples governance (law and justice)

• How can crime rates be reduced in a cost
  effective manner in urban areas?
• What interventions promote more equitable access
  to justice, and how do these affect household
  welfare?

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Brown(ish) field examples

• Which interventions most cost effectively reduce
  vulnerability amongst poor households in rural
  areas?
• What are the relative costs and benefits of
  different sanitation investments?

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Survey most favoured questions

• Unweighted
• What are the most important/effective factors and
  contexts for large and long-term behavior change
  in poor and rural areas?
• Weighted
• What are the constraints faced by the poor to
  access finance?

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Thank you

• www.3ieimpact.org
• www.impactevaluation2009.org