Invitation to Impact Evaluation Incubator 2024

Norad wants to increase the use of impact evaluations in Norwegian development cooperation. We are pleased to invite aid organisations to sign up for participation in a 3-day impact evaluation incubator on 2–4 December 2024. Both current Norad agreement partners and other organisations are invited to participate; however, Norad partners may be prioritised.

Organised by Norad in cooperation with Development Learning Lab (DLL).

Venue: Norad’s office in Oslo, Norway.

During these three days, researchers from DLL (www.devlearnlab.no) will guide participants step-by-step through the process of designing impact evaluations of projects of the organisations’ own choice. Participants will learn about best practice in impact evaluation and how to address practical challenges.

Norad will invest in more and better knowledge production in the aid portfolios over the coming years. As part of this, Norad expects partners to prioritise knowledge production – including impact evaluations, when appropriate – in their budgets. Knowledge use and production will be weighted more heavily in assessment of applications going forward, and Norad will also consider putting out thematic call for proposals for research projects. The incubator will prepare participating organisations for these changes.

We invite 4–5 participants from each organisation. The incubator will be held in English, and we encourage participants to include staff from implementing organisations with good knowledge about the project and the context in which the project is implemented.

Requirements: All participants must bring a concrete proposal for an impact evaluation to the incubator. Basic knowledge of concepts within impact evaluation is an advantage but not a requirement.

Participation for the full three days by all participants is necessary to take full advantage of the incubator. We prefer that organisations attend physically, for the best learning experience, but hybrid format (some participants in Oslo and some online) is accepted. 

Costs: Participation is free of charge. Organisations must cover their own travel expenses.

How to register: Interested participants are asked to submit a registration form including brief information about a relevant project within 10 October. Fill in the form below and send it to viola.asri@cmi.no.

Download the Incubator registration form (.docx)

We intend to offer the incubator to all organisations with a project that is suitable for an impact evaluation.

Examples of topics that will be covered:

• What can we learn from impact evaluations?
• Using theories of change to develop good evaluation questions
• Designing impact evaluations: Randomized and quasi-experimental designs
• Indicators and measurement
• Addressing implementation challenges
• Sample size and power calculations

What does a suitable project look like?

Suitable projects have the potential to conduct an impact evaluation with high information value and learning potential.

Potential to conduct an impact evaluation:

• It is possible to identify a credible comparison group.
• The project has sufficient size (i.e., number of individuals/households/communities targeted) to allow for robust quantitative analysis.
• It is possible to conduct a baseline to the proposed measure (which could be a new initiative, or an expansion or a change of an ongoing project).
• Alternatively, baseline data of good quality do already exist for both intervention and comparison groups OR it can plausibly be argued that the outcomes of interest were identical in the intervention and comparison groups before the measure was implemented.

High information value and learning potential:

• Findings will be relevant for the organisation or others in informing improvements to the current project design and/or in future portfolio and policy decisions.
• Existing evidence of impact is limited.
• High degree of certainty that the project can be successfully implemented.
• The intervention addresses an important problem and can be brought to scale.

Questions?

Norad is committed to assisting all our partners and other organisations in enhancing the knowledge foundation of their development and humanitarian initiatives. Learning materials and presentations from our previous impact evaluation incubators can be accessed here: Learning Materials (devlearnlab.no).

Questions can be directed to viola.asri@cmi.no.