Using Evidence for Policy Making - Impact Evaluation Workshop

10-14 March 2014: The Government of Rwanda and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) partnered to hold a custom training course intended to build capacity in understanding methods of impact evaluation and in critically using evidence in the policy decision-making process.

The course included two tracks, incorporating both individuals from the Government of Rwanda engaged in policy formation and researchers from Rwandan institutions. Both groups participated in a policy discussion at the Gorillas Hotel Nyarutarama.

The researchers then continued to learn about methods of impact evaluation at University of Rwanda, School of Public Health. During the policy discussions, participants worked to apply lessons from previous randomized evaluations to design a new program or policy innovation to address key challenges in the areas of Agriculture & Extension Services, Technology & Information, Innovative Collateral, Improving Nutrition, Cross-Generational Transmission of HIV, and Incentives to Improve Education.

The extended research training then covered the theoretical foundation for identifying causality and the methodologies used to conduct impact evaluations. Participants worked together to apply these concepts to plan an impact evaluation for their newly designed policy innovation.

This website provides a variety of resources relating to the course. The course schedule, course lectures, case studies, group exercises, and other pertinent readings can be found in the Resources side bar. For those unable to attend this training, a free online version of J-PAL’s Executive Education can be found here.