In this introductory article, a brief history and introduction to contribution analysis is provided to lay the stage for the articles that follow. At the heart of contribution analysis is the aim t...

Contribution analysis: Coming of age?:

This issue of Development Policy Review arises from a study of the impact and effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs) in different development sectors. It analyses existing evidence, discusses how approaches to learning about TAIs might be improved, and recommends how impact and effectiveness could be enhanced.

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The Impact of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives

Research increasingly seeks both to generate knowledge and to contribute to real-world solutions, with strong emphasis on context and social engagement. As boundaries between disciplines are crossed, and as research engages more with stakeholders in complex systems, traditional academic definitions and criteria of research quality are no longer sufficient—there is a need for a parallel evolution of principles and criteria to define and evaluate research quality in a transdisciplinary research (TDR) context. We conducted a systematic review to help answer the question: What are appropriate principles and criteria for defining and assessing TDR quality? Articles were selected and reviewed seeking: arguments for or against expanding definitions of research quality, purposes for research quality evaluation, proposed principles of research quality, proposed criteria for research quality assessment, proposed indicators and measures of research quality, and proposed processes for evaluating TDR. We used the information from the review and our own experience in two research organizations that employ TDR approaches to develop a prototype TDR quality assessment framework, organized as an evaluation rubric. We provide an overview of the relevant literature and summarize the main aspects of TDR quality identified there. Four main principles emerge: relevance, including social significance and applicability; credibility, including criteria of integration and reflexivity, added to traditional criteria of scientific rigor; legitimacy, including criteria of inclusion and fair representation of stakeholder interests, and; effectiveness, with criteria that assess actual or potential contributions to problem solving and social change.

/pdf/defining-and-assessing-research-quality-in-a-14ld62816h.pdf

Defining and assessing research quality in a transdisciplinary context

Using Logic Models

Measures of socio-economic impacts of conservation interventions have largely been restricted to externally defined indicators focused on income, which do not reflect people's priorities. Using a holistic, locally grounded conceptualization of human well-being instead provides a way to understand the multi-faceted impacts of conservation on aspects of people's lives that they value. Conservationists are engaging with well-being for both pragmatic and ethical reasons, yet current guidance on how to operationalize the concept is limited. We present nine guiding principles based around a well-being framework incorporating material, relational and subjective components, and focused on gaining knowledge needed for decision-making. The principles relate to four key components of an impact evaluation: (i) defining well-being indicators, giving primacy to the perceptions of those most impacted by interventions through qualitative research, and considering subjective well-being, which can affect engagement with conservation; (ii) attributing impacts to interventions through quasi-experimental designs, or alternative methods such as theory-based, case study and participatory approaches, depending on the setting and evidence required; (iii) understanding the processes of change including evidence of causal linkages, and consideration of trajectories of change and institutional processes; and (iv) data collection with methods selected and applied with sensitivity to research context, consideration of heterogeneity of impacts along relevant societal divisions, and conducted by evaluators with local expertise and independence from the intervention.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2015.0103

Guiding principles for evaluating the impacts of conservation interventions on human well-being.

Diese Studie behandelt schwierige methodologische und theoretische Herausforderungen, mit denen jene konfrontiert sind, welche die Auswirkungen internationaler Entwicklungspolitik bewerten wollen. Die meisten Investitionen in die Wirkungsevaluierung (WE) sind bisher in einen engen Teilbereich von vorwiegend experimentellen und statistischen Methoden und Entwurfen gegangen, die nach DFID nur auf einen kleinen Teil ihres derzeitigen Programmportfolios anwendbar sind. Diese Studie soll das Spektrum erweitern und komplexe und schwer zu evaluierende Programme mit den Moglichkeiten der WE erschliesen. Die Studie betrachtet die bestehende WE-Praxis, uberpruft die Literatur zu den Methoden und beurteilt, wie hochmoderne Evaluierungsentwurfe und -methoden bei aktuellen Entwicklungsprogrammen angewendet werden konnten.

/pdf/broadening-the-range-of-designs-and-methods-for-impact-1aptjwye0e.pdf

Broadening the range of designs and methods for impact evaluations

This IDS Bulletin is the first of two special issues presenting contributions from the event ‘Impact Innovation and Learning: Towards a Research and Practice Agenda for the Future’, organised by IDS in March 2013. The initiative, as well as these two issues, represent a ‘rallying cry’ for impact evaluation to rise to the challenges of a post‐MDG/post‐2015 development agenda. This introduction articulates first what these challenges are, and then goes on to summarise how the contributors propose to meet these challenges in terms of methodological and institutional innovation. Increasingly ambitious development goals, multiple layers of governance and lines of accountability require adequate causal inference frameworks and less ambitious expectations on the span of direct influence single interventions can achieve, as well as awareness of multiple bias types. Institutions need to be researched and become more impact‐oriented and learning‐oriented .

/pdf/introduction-rethinking-impact-evaluation-for-development-43dya82ucs.pdf

Introduction – Rethinking Impact Evaluation for Development

This IDS Bulletin is the second of two that follow an Institute of Development Studies event seeking to define an agenda for research and practice of development impact evaluation. It focuses on exploring the potential of systems ideas and complexity concepts to meet the increasingly complex challenges of an increasingly ambitious development agenda. In particular, the contributions seek to: (a) redefine ‘learning’ according to the number of ‘learning loops’ involved; (b) understand how to identify the most relevant impact evaluation questions; (c) simulate systems states in two sectors (leather and health) following the implementation of (combinations of) different policy options and other events; and finally, (d) shake the foundations of the impact evaluation institutional system, recommending that the notions of multiple perspectives and system boundaries are fully embraced, and that the system ultimately transitions from an ‘evaluation industrial complex’ to an ‘evaluation adaptive complex’. While the issue is a step in the right direction, much more work remains to be done.

/pdf/introduction-towards-systemic-approaches-to-evaluation-and-3bmaba9la4.pdf

Introduction – Towards Systemic Approaches to Evaluation and Impact

Experimental impact evaluation methods have recently emerged as a dominant force within the development effectiveness movement. Although these methods have improved understanding of what works, their “gold standard” status threatens to exclude a large body of alternative evidence. This paper evaluates the impact of CARE’s SHOUHARDO project in Bangladesh, which employed a rights-based, livelihoods approach. Using a mixed-methods protocol, we find plausible evidence that the project led to an extraordinarily large reduction in child malnutrition. While offering valuable policy lessons, we illustrate how rigorous evaluation can be undertaken even without the randomization and control groups required by the experimental methods.

Impact evaluation of natural resource management research programs: a broader view

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Broadening the range of designs and methods for impact evaluations

Introduction – Rethinking Impact Evaluation for Development

Introduction – Towards Systemic Approaches to Evaluation and Impact

Impact evaluation of natural resource management research programs: a broader view