Using Mixed Methods to Unpack the Black Box of a Social Accountability RCT: Early Findings from the Transparency for Development (T4D) Project in Indonesia

Can communities play a role in strengthening service delivery? Does empowering citizens to engage in transparency and accountability activities lead to improvement in health outcomes? Utilizing an innovative mixed methods design across several countries, these are the questions the Transparency for Development (T4D) project strives to answer. Join T4D researchers Dan Levy and Jessica Creighton as they discuss the T4D intervention and research design, reflect on the T4D project’s mixed methods approach, and draw on early qualitative insights from the evaluation in Indonesia that demonstrate the benefits of integrating qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluating development programs.

Presenters

Dan Levy, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Faculty Chair of the Harvard Kennedy School’s SLATE (Strengthening Learning and Teaching Excellence) Initiative, teaches courses in quantitative methods and program evaluation. He recently directed impact evaluations of girl-friendly school construction programs in Burkina Faso and Niger. He was recently involved in the evaluation of a conditional cash transfer program in Jamaica, a technical assistance project to Mexico’s Social Development Ministry (Sedesol), the evaluation of an after-school program in the U.S., and a methodological review of studies comparing the use of various methods to estimate program impacts. He has served as a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, a faculty affiliate at the Poverty Action Lab (MIT), and as consultant to several organizations including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Global Development Network (GDN). He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University, grew up in Venezuela, and is fluent in Spanish and French.

Jessica Creighton is an Assistant Director at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she is responsible for managing the Transparency for Development (T4D) Project. In addition to overall project management, she contributes to intervention design, research design, and writing. Prior to her current role, Ms. Creighton provided field management and research assistance for Reconciliation, Conflict and Development: A Field Experiment in Sierra Leone with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). She has also worked in various capacities at Harvard University, including at the Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Alumni Association. Ms. Creighton holds an Ed.M. in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Political Science from Tulane University.