Our partnership with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the University of East Anglia (UEA) cuts across disciplines, policy research areas and evaluation silos, and provides a ‘space’ to convene and co-construct different ways of assessing impact.
As our recent network feedback survey shows, our readership is equally diverse from across academia, NGOs, and evaluators, with a particularly strong readership in sub-Saharan Africa.
A particular highlight over the past six months has been our continued work on what ‘evaluating impact’ 
might mean in light of new global challenges, new actors and new demands for impact evidence. Our work with Swedfund and the Venture Capital Trust Fund (in Ghana), explores the measurement challenges and social impact claims of investors. See our recent IDS Policy Brief which looks at what social media tells us about this emerging market. Plus, our contribution to a recent Wilton Park event explored the challenge for evaluators and their role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We’ve also been highlighting the importance of ethics in evaluation and the different values
and perspectives that underpin evaluation and knowledge. Our special editorial on evaluation ethics in the Journal for Development Effectiveness highlights this work through four new articles:
Ethics in Evaluation, Chris Barnett and Laura Camfield (if you are unable to access the article, please email the authors)- Ethics in international development evaluation and research: what is the problem, why does it matter and what can we do about it? Leslie Groves Williams (you will need a subscription to the journal to access the full article)
- Cultures of evaluation: tales from the end of the line, Caitlin Scott (you will need a subscription to the journal to access the full article)
- Assessing contrasting strategies for ensuring ethical practice within evaluation: institutional review boards and professionalisation, Peter O’Flynn, Chris Barnett, and Laura Camfield (if you are unable to access the article, please email the authors)
We continue our work on exploring the application of a range of approaches and evaluation designs for assessing the impact of complex development and policy interventions. Recent CDI seminars at IDS and UEA include:
- Using Natural Experiments to Understand Vulnerability and Resilience
- From index to impact? Process tracing the policy impact of the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI)
We’ve been busy blogging, as well as writing publications, attending events, and conducting research.
Blogs:
- What can social media reveal about the world of impact investing?
- Identifying the world’s most important impact investors
- Results: CDI Community Feedback Survey
- Five takeaways from inside the QCA bubble at EES2016
- The challenges and benefits of applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis
- Evaluators: Are we being too narrow-minded about ethics?
- Collaborating with impact investors to learn more about ‘social impact evaluation’
Publications:
- Policy Anticipation, Response and Evaluation – an IDS Evidence Report on a panel discussion around the use and application of ethics in impact evaluation
- Gauging Demand for Evidence and Accountability in Impact Investing by using Twitter Social
Network Analysis: A Methodology
Events:
- We came together with colleagues from around the world to discuss evaluation of the sustainable development goals at ‘Tracking development progress and evaluating development partnerships in the post 2015 era’ Have a look at #SDGEval to see the conversation
Don’t forget to have a look at our substantial archive of CDI Practice Papers, and keep an eye out for more published in 2017!
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