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Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund Mid Term Review

Final Report

by Joachim Krapels, Jirka Taylor, Marie-Louise Henham, Ben Baruch, Tom Ling

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The Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF) was created with funding from the Department for International Development (DfID) to support impact evaluations focusing on human development outcomes, building capacity on impact evaluations, and synthesising and disseminating the findings of impact evaluations along with wider evidence in its thematic subject areas. SIEF's objective is to "strengthen the effectiveness of DfID's and others' global aid policies, programmes and partnerships." In the long run, SIEF is expected to contribute towards an improved delivery of DfID's and World Bank's programmes with human development outcomes and to improved human development outcomes for poor populations. DfID commissioned RAND Europe to conduct a Mid Term Review (MTR) of SIEF. The MTR drew on a number of methods to collect a wide range of data upon which the review was based. RAND Europe conducted a survey of applicants to SIEF funding, reviewed all available documentation, and conducted interviews and an online focus group with stakeholders, including in DfID and SIEF. On the basis of the data collected, RAND Europe drafted recommendations to support the future development of SIEF and to help ensure that SIEF can generate an impact in the future. Drawing on expertise in evaluations as well as in impact assessment, RAND Europe aimed to contribute to the goals of SIEF outlined above.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Introduction and background

  • Chapter Two

    Methodology

  • Chapter Three

    Research question 2: SIEF value for money

  • Chapter Four

    Research question 3: Management of calls for proposal

  • Chapter Five

    Research question 4: impact evaluation trainings and clinics

  • Chapter Six

    Research question 5: evidence-to-policy notes

  • Chapter Seven

    Research question 6: consideration of gender

  • Chapter Eight

    Research question 1: overall design of SIEF

  • Chapter Nine

    Conclusions and recommendations

  • Appendix A

    Theory of Change for SIEF

  • Appendix B

    Interview protocol

  • Appendix C

    Survey questions (successful and unsuccessful)

  • Appendix D

    Detailed survey methodology

  • Appendix E

    Focus group protocol

  • Appendix F

    Key risks from the business case

  • Appendix G

    10 questions to assess knowledge gain

  • Appendix H

    Workshop data gender-disaggregated

  • Appendix I

    Additional survey results

  • Appendix J

    Results E2P notes gender check

  • Appendix K

    SIEF proposal selection process

  • Appendix L

    Comments on E2P notes

Research conducted by

The research described in this report was conducted by RAND Europe.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation research report series. RAND reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.