If economists are the ‘dismal scientists’ always harping on about limited resources, evaluators are often considered the ‘pessimist scientists’ who only see the half-empty glass, rather than the half-full one. The end of the year is, however, a perfect time to break with that tradition. It is a time...

The effects of most international development spending remain unknown, despite the potential for evaluation to save governments and aid agencies hundreds of millions of dollars and improve lives, according to a new large-scale analysis.

Decision makers within governments, aid agencies, multilateral organizations, and NGOs have not yet fully harnessed the value of evidence for better public policies. To address this missed opportunity, we convened a virtual working group from 2020 to 2022, bringing together 40 policymakers and exper...

“3ie has made my job much easier.” This is what we heard last month from a high-ranking government official in Africa, referring to the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), and it made us very proud. Creating 3ie was the outcome of the Evaluation Gap Working Group tha...