Theory-based impact evaluation: principles and practice
June 2009
Calls for rigorous impact evaluation has been accompanied by the quest for what works and why. Howard White identifies six principles for the successful application of the approach — mapping out the causal chain (programme theory), understanding the context, anticipating heterogeneity, rigorous evaluation of impact using a credible counterfactual, rigorous factual analysis and using mixed methods.
Download in English (918.9 KB)
Download in Chinese (343.3 KB)
Phi Beta Iota: The international Initiative for Impact Evaluation, which receives support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is doing important work, but in isolation from a larger canvas. They lack a strategic analytic model for studying the whole. This is typical of all intelligence and information analytic endeavors, all mired in 20th Century stove-pipe thinking.
See Also:
2012 PREPRINT FOR COMMENT: The Craft of Intelligence
Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits
