The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.

This issue of New Directions for Evaluation deals with the special evaluation problems of programs in the developing world. Over the last two decades, the framework of economic and social development policy and practice has been transformed. This is due in part to evaluation lessons, which have helped to shape the new development priorities toward sustainability, participation, and insitutional development. In turn, evaluation must deal with the consequences of a more demanding agenda, a more fractured development constituency, and a vastly more complex set of analytical questions. This publication presents the views of development policy makers, practitioners, and evaluators on the kinds of adjustments needed in the approaches, instruments, and processes used by development evaluators. The chapters were discussed in draft form at a Conference on Evaluation and Development, hosted by the world Bank in Washington, D.C., in December 1994. The resulting collection offers a consistent framework for further debate and proposes new emphases for development evaluation. This is the 67th issue in the journal series New Directions for Evaluation. For more information on the series, please see the Journals and Periodicals page.

This issue of New Directions for Evaluation deals with the special evaluation problems of programs in the developing world. Over the last two decades, the framework of economic and social development policy and practice has been transformed. This is due in part to evaluation lessons, which have helped to shape the new development priorities toward sustainability, participation, and insitutional development. In turn, evaluation must deal with the consequences of a more demanding agenda, a more fractured development constituency, and a vastly more complex set of analytical questions. This publication presents the views of development policy makers, practitioners, and evaluators on the kinds of adjustments needed in the approaches, instruments, and processes used by development evaluators. The chapters were discussed in draft form at a Conference on Evaluation and Development, hosted by the world Bank in Washington, D.C., in December 1994. The resulting collection offers a consistent framework for further debate and proposes new emphases for development evaluation. This is the 67th issue in the journal series New Directions for Evaluation. For more information on the series, please see the Journals and Periodicals page.

An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, NGOs, civil society, international organizations and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This Handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a OC Readiness AssessmentOCO and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The Handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way."

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. The book examines the methodological challenges in analyzing the effectiveness of development policies. It presents a selection of tools and methodologies that can help tackle the complexities of which policies work best and why, and how they can be implemented effectively given the political and economic framework conditions of a country. The contributions in this book offer a continuation of the ongoing evidence-based debate on the role of agriculture and participatory policy processes in reducing poverty. They develop and apply quantitative political economy approaches by integrating quantitative models of political decision-making into existing economic modeling tools, allowing a more comprehensive growth-poverty analysis. The book addresses not only scholars who use quantitative policy modeling and evaluation techniques in their empirical or theoretical research, but also technical experts, including policy makers and analysts from stakeholder organizations, involved in formulating and implementing policies to reduce poverty and to increase economic and social well-being in African countries.

'The Road to Results: Designing and Conducting Effective Development Evaluations' presents concepts and procedures for evaluation in a development context. It provides procedures and examples on how to set up a monitoring and evaluation system, how to conduct participatory evaluations and do social mapping, and how to construct a "rigorous" quasi-experimental design to answer an impact question. The text begins with the context of development evaluation and how it arrived where it is today. It then discusses current issues driving development evaluation, such as the Millennium Development Goals and the move from simple project evaluations to the broader understandings of complex evaluations. The topics of implementing 'Results-based Measurement and Evaluation' and constructing a 'Theory of Change' are emphasized throughout the text. Next, the authors take the reader down 'the road to results, ' presenting procedures for evaluating projects, programs, and policies by using a 'Design Matrix' to help map the process. This road includes: determining the overall approach, formulating questions, selecting designs, developing data collection instruments, choosing a sampling strategy, and planning data analysis for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method evaluations. The book also includes discussions on conducting complex evaluations, how to manage evaluations, how to present results, and ethical behavior--including principles, standards, and guidelines. The final chapter discusses the future of development evaluation. This comprehensive text is an essential tool for those involved in development evaluation.

USA. Research results of a study of the federal system for the evaluation of social policy programmes - distinguishes four types of evaluation, viz. Programme impact, programme strategy, project evaluation and project rating, covers administrative aspects, organizational relationships between national level and local level, financial aspects and personneling, evaluation techniques, etc., and includes recommendations. Bibliography pp. 121 to 134.