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Research Programmes and centres

Centre

CDI-logo-web-story

Centre for Development Impact

The Centre for Development Impact (CDI) contributes to learning and innovation in the field of impact evaluation, through the use of appropriate, mixed method, and robust evaluation designs. It is a joint initiative between IDS, Itad and the University of East Anglia (UEA).

South Africa. Mobile health team visiting rural communities. Credit: Giacomo Pirozzi / Panos

Debates around impact evaluation have received renewed interest in recent years. Alongside a growing pressure on politicians and policymakers to demonstrate results and value for money, conventional evaluation approaches are being critiqued for lacking in rigour, and/or being too narrowly focused and unable to capture complexity. CDI’s work helps to broaden the range of evaluation designs and methods, providing funders and evaluators alike with valuable insights and tools for evaluative thinking.

We achieve this through:

  1. Reflecting on methods to support evaluative thinking in complex development interventions;
  2. Developing and delivering training and learning programmes; and,
  3. Supporting or implementing evaluations that provide scope for innovation.

Supporting Evaluations

CDI helps to design, backstop and implementation of outcome and impact evaluations. At CDI, we place particular value in the appropriateness of evaluation design choices to a specific situation (the questions, the context, the intervention, the purpose, and resources). See below a small selection of projects that we are involved in.

We also value ways in which the perspectives of the poor and most marginalised in society are reflected in evidence and how their voices can be amplified through the process of measuring change (design, data collection, analysis, and use). Often people are viewed narrowly as the ‘subject’ of research and evaluation, yet different perspectives and their framings can enrich both our understanding of the impact, and through the process, empower people to influence transformational change.

Finally, we value impact evidence as a way to improve social accountability to citizens. Knowledge and evidence shape power relations. With increasing flows of capital being used for mission-based purposes, the democratic gap between those making decisions and those affected by interventions is set to widen. We value ways in which evidence of impact can be used (and be part of deliberative processes) that increase accountability to those too often left behind.

Methodological Reflection

CDI’s contribution is to provide a valuable platform from which to engage with (and influence) understandings of development impact, and the methodologies needed to demonstrate it. CDI provides a ‘safe space’ for partners to debate and learn beyond undertaking evaluations; and works across academic, public, private and voluntary sectors, as well as across disciplinary traditions, and a wide range of actors in research, evaluation and practice.

Recent Publications

CDI Practice Papers

  • CDI Practice Paper 22. Reality Bites: Making Realist Evaluation Useful in the Real World
  • CDI Practice Paper 21. Assessing the Relative Importance of Causal Factors
  • CDI Practice Paper 20. Contribution Analysis and Estimating the Size of Effects: Can We Reconcile the Possible with the Impossible?
  • CDI Practice Paper 19. Understanding and Optimising the Social Impact of Venture Capital: Three Lessons from Ghana
  • CDI Practice Paper 18. Getting the Most Out of Participatory Impact Assessment: Reflections from a Multi-Country Cash Transfer Impact Assessment

See all

Resource Guides

A series of four developed to support researchers in international development with key monitoring, evaluation and learning processes, such as Theory of Change and logframes for proposal and project design.

  • Resource Guide 1. Introduction to Theory of Change
  • Resource Guide 2. Seven Steps to a Theory of Change
  • Resource Guide 3. Introduction to Logframes
  • Resource Guide 4. Developing a MEL Approach

Webinars

In June 2021, during the gLocal week, the Centre for Development Impact (CDI) organised a series of free, online, one-hour webinars about various impact evaluation methods within a theory-based evaluation approach. This theory-based approach to impact evaluation responds to the demands of policymakers and funders that need to assess the effectiveness of support interventions with appropriate indicators, indicative of relevance and additionality of projects in relation to other actors and factors that influence the change processes.

The webinars present several key modules of the professional courses we organise in the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the University of East Anglia (UEA) on impact evaluation.

The recordings for the seminars are now available to view here:

  • Giel Ton (IDS) – Contribution Analysis for Impact Evaluation: Learning and Accountability with Mayne’s Six Steps
  • Maren Duvendack (UEA) – Theory-based Evaluations: Dealing with Complex Interventions and ‘small n’ Evaluation Scenarios
  • Louise Clark (IDS) – Shaping Policy with Evidence: Using Stakeholder Mapping to Identify Pathways to Influence
  • Marina Apgar (IDS) & Steff Deprez (Voices That Count) – Participatory MEL: Towards a Systemic Learning Practice
  • Mieke Snijders (IDS) – Realist Synthesis for Realist Evaluation of Participatory Action Research

Training and Learning

IDS offers a master module in the post-graduate programme of the University of Sussex: Theory and Practice of Impact Evaluation

The University of East Anglia (UEA) offers the MSc course: Impact Evaluation for International Development

In 2022 IDS offers several professional learning courses:

  • Contribution Analysis for Impact Evaluation
  • Shaping Policy with Evidence
  • Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation for Learning

CDI is a joint initiative between IDS, Itad and the University of East Anglia (UEA).

You can find out more about all of IDS’ world-class postgraduate degrees and professional development programmes that enable individuals and organisations to build the skills and knowledge needed for more equitable and sustainable development globally.

Core team

Giel Ton (IDS), Maren Duvendack (UEA) and Chris Barnett (Itad)

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Key contacts

Giel Ton
Giel Ton

Research Fellow

g.ton@ids.ac.uk

+44 (0)1273 915756

Marina Apgar
Marina Apgar

Research Fellow

m.apgar@ids.ac.uk

+44 (0)1273 915778

Louise Clark
Louise Clark

MEL Manager

L.Clark@ids.ac.uk

Partners

In partnership with
School of International Development, University of East Anglia Itad

People

Giel Ton
Giel Ton

Research Fellow

Inka Barnett
Inka Barnett

Health and Nutrition Cluster Lead

Lewis Husain

Research Fellow

Louise Clark
Louise Clark

MEL Manager

Marina Apgar
Marina Apgar

Research Fellow

Mieke Snijder
Peter Taylor
Peter Taylor

Director of Research

Richard Longhurst
Richard Longhurst

Research Associate

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Projects

Project

Independent Evaluation of DFID Ethiopias Private Enterprise Programme Ethiopia (PEPE)

In 2012, DFID (now FCDO) put together the Private Enterprise Programme Ethiopia (PEPE) to respond to the second growth and transformation plan of the government of Ethiopia. Within the focus areas of this growth and transformation plan, PEPE prioritised sectors where there were clear...

Project

2SCALE: Incubating and Accelerating Inclusive Agribusiness in Africa Phase 2

IDS is collaborating with the Partnership Resource Centre (PrC) in the Netherlands to evaluate scaling processes in inclusive business development. PrC is a strategic partner of 2SCALE - an incubator program funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which manages a portfolio of...

Project

Increasing Transparency in Smallholder Supply Chains: Comparing Approaches to Monitoring Performance of Investments and Private Sector Participation

For this DfID-funded project, we will be providing a synthesis of the types of monitoring, evaluation and data being used by investors and the private sector in agricultural supply chains in a developing country context.

Project

New Frontiers for Evaluation

An unprecedented revolution has swept over the development scene since the turn of the century: it is market-led and emphasizes the mobilization of private energies, funds and skills. A brand new cast of influential development actors is transforming the state aid monopoly. The development...

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Recent work

Featured Past Event

Theory-based evaluations of Inclusive Business Programmes

31 May 2022

The private sector has become an important partner in development interventions that aim to make market systems more favourable for smallholder producers and low-income consumers of food. In these...

Past Event

CDI webinar series on methods for theory-based evaluation

Ethics in evaluation: Current debates and practice

Questions about ethics are increasingly recognised as central concerns of evaluation practice, especially in the context of policy and programming that aims to reach marginalised and excluded populations. Current localisation and decolonisation debates create further momentum for asking...

14 October 2022

Report

The Art and Craft of Bricolage in Evaluation

CDI Practice Paper 24

This CDI Practice Paper makes the case for ‘bricolage’ in complexity-aware and qualitative evaluation methods. It provides a framework based on a review of 33 methods to support evaluators to be more intentional about bricolage and to combine the component parts of relevant methods more...

Tom Aston
Tom Aston
Marina Apgar
Marina Apgar

14 October 2022

Past Event

CDI webinar series on methods for theory-based evaluation

Evaluating capacity-strengthening impact: A funder perspective

In this Centre for Development Impact (CDI) webinar, Peter Taylor will discuss his learnings as a commissioner of a large multi-country programme The Think Tank Initiative (TTI) for strengthening for thinktanks in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It offered flexible, long-term funding combined...

6 October 2022

Report

Evaluating Capacity-Strengthening Impact: A Funder Perspective

CDI Practice Paper 23

This CDI Practice paper by Peter Taylor describes the evolution of the Think Tank Initiative (TTI) evaluation approach as it engaged progressively with the complexity of the programme. It reflects critically on key lessons learned through process and outcomes. It also offers some takeaways for...

Peter Taylor
Peter Taylor

25 August 2022

Opinion

Innovating for inclusive rigour in peacebuilding evaluation

Inclusive and rigorous peacebuilding evaluation is both vital and complex. In this blog we share examples of how we are innovating our methodologies to move towards participatory and adaptive practice. The challenges of peacebuilding evaluation Peacebuilding processes and interventions are...

Marina Apgar
Marina Apgar & 9 others

22 April 2022

Case study

Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation for Learning

23 March 2022

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