Statistically assessing the impact of social programmes in developing
countries is increasingly, though slowly, becoming standard
practice in the development community. This course presents the
main methodologies that are commonly applied to the evaluation
of the impact of social programmes in developing countries. It is
meant to be an intuitive introduction to these methods, with technical
aspects kept to a minimum. Heavy emphasis will be placed on
concrete examples where these methods have been applied, in
such areas as privatisation of basic services, conditional cash transfer
programmes, health, community-driven social programmes,
education, and nutrition. For participants who are interested, supplemental
technical material will be provided allowing them to
delve more deeply into the nuts and bolts of the methods covered.
By the end of the course, participants will have acquired the capacity
to distinguish true impact evaluations from false versions, and
will be able to critically assess the validity of studies of this kind
prepared under the auspices of multilateral or bilateral donors.