MODULE 20. INSTALLING AN IMPACT EVALUATION PROTOCOL
Objective
This module is dedicated to the installation of an impact evaluation protocol for the national mechanism to deliver coordinated SPFs. It intends to provide insights and guidance on the design of such a protocol.
It is based on the experience of developing such an evaluation protocol in Cambodia.
Key questions
1. What is an impat evaluation protocol?
2. What is the difference-in-differences methodology?
3. Why is an impact evaluation protocol important while implementing mechanisms to deliver coordinated social protection floors?
4. What are the expected outputs of the impact evaluation protocol?
5. How to develop an impact evaluation protocol?
Take away message
Impact Evaluations as: “analyses that measure the net change in outcomes for a particular group of people that can be attributed to a specific programme using the best methodology available, feasible and appropriate to the evaluation question that is being investigated and to the specific context”.
Impact evaluation assesses the changes that can be attributed to a particular intervention, such as a project, programme or policy, both the intended ones, as well as the unintended ones (side effects).
Impact evaluations help people answer key questions for evidence-based policy making: what works, what does not, where, why and for how much? It has received increasing attention in policy making in recent years in both Western and developing country contexts
Difference-in-differences calculates the effect of a treatment (i.e. the implementation of the SWS) on an outcome (e.g. development and access to the SPFs) by comparing the average change over time in the outcome variable in the treatment group, to the average change over time the same variable in the control group. ~~Two surveys have to be completed for this technique, a baseline survey (starting point of the evaluation, before any treatment) and an end-survey (after receiving the treatment during a time which will be assessed as sufficient).
Three key success factors have been identified through the installation of impact evaluation protocols in the field of social protection:
- Installation of a partnership with a university/research institute - it requires specific expertises;
- Implementation of the protocol since the outset of the project; and
- Provision of sufficient resources - an impact evaluation in complex and constly to conduct.
Master Module 20
Click here to access Module 20