Monitoring & Evaluation Training Course for

the Indian Economic Service

Introduction and Overview

Diva Dhar

Assistant Director, J-PAL South Asia at IFMR

Surajkund

March 10th, 2014

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

Research affiliate network of over 88 professors in 34 universities; 491 evaluations in 55 countries

across 7 global offices

J-PAL is a Centre at MIT’s Department of Economics,

with Regional Offices Worldwide

J-PAL South Asia: A Brief History

J-PAL South Asia office set up in

2007 at the Institute for Financial

Management and Research,

Chennai

Over 90 completed and ongoing

projects across South Asia:

education, finance & microfinance,

environment & energy, health,

political economy & governance,

labor markets and agriculture

Scientific Directors: Esther Duflo

(MIT), Iqbal Dhaliwal (Ex-IAS –

1996 batch)

Policy: Translating Research into Action

Goal: Improve lives of poor through better policies and programs based on

evidence from J-PAL’s randomised evaluations

Outreach strategy:

• Determine which programs to promote based on magnitude of impact,

cost-effectiveness, context, and generalisability of results

• Summarise evaluation results

• Share evidence with policymakers through high-level meetings and

workshops

• Provide technical assistance to policy partners to replicate and scale-

up evidenced-based programs, often starting with a policy pilot

CLEAR Initiative

Global initiative coordinated by the

World Bank Independent

Evaluation Group

The CLEAR South Asia Regional

Centre has been hosted by J-PAL

South Asia at IFMR since May 2011

Established a partnership with the

Centre for Economic Research

(CERP) in Pakistan and works

closely with Innovations for

Poverty Action (IPA) in Bangladesh

CLEAR: Regional Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results

CLEAR’s Strategic Vision:

• Building evaluation skills of

practitioners, program

implementers, and donors

• Strengthening M&E systems

and practices for strategic

clients

• Building a culture of evidence

based decision-making and

strengthening demand for

evaluations

ASER Centre

ASER Centre is a not for profit company, registered under s.5 Indian

Companies Act

It was established in 2008 as a specialized, independent unit within the

Pratham network

We work towards providing answers to 2 key questions:

• Are social sector programs leading to desired outcomes?

• Is public expenditure effectively leading towards stated goals?

Our Vision is:

• To implement various assessment activities in

• the social sector

• To build the capacity of individuals and

• organizations across the country to

• undertake similar initiatives

About this Course

This four day course, organized by J-PAL/ CLEAR South Asia and ASER

The course will give an overview of cutting-edge methods used for

outcome based monitoring, impact evaluation and data collection

The course will include a series of presentations, case studies, group

exercises and fieldwork practicum

About this Course

The objectives of this course are to:

• To build knowledge of monitoring and evaluation techniques and

approaches to determine the efficacy of social sector policies.

To understand he conceptual framework for program evaluation and the

role of impact evaluation

• To recognize the strengths, weaknesses, assumptions and limitations of

various impact evaluation methods

• To gain exposure to outcome based monitoring methods and evidence

• To expand knowledge of effective, innovative measurement techniques,

instrument design and data collection

• To understand how to effectively integrate credible evidence into decision

making

Course Structure

4 days

13 presentations

1 case study

Half day fieldwork

Group Presentation

Lecture Overview

Introduction and Training Overview (Diva Dhar)

Welcome Remarks: The Importance of Data and Evidence for Policymaking (Varad

Pande)

Evaluation Frameworks and Theory of Change (John Floretta)

Impact Evaluation Methods (Marc Shotland)

Experimental Research Method (Dr. Anant Sudarshan)

Sampling Methodologies and Techniques (Dr. Wilima Wadhwa)

Instrument Design (Dr. Sharon Barnhardt)

Outcome Based Participatory Approach (Dr. Smriti Pahwa and Ranajit Bhattacharyya)

Designing Indicators (Dr. Smriti Pahwa and Ranajit Bhattacharyya)

Using Evidence for Public Service Delivery and Accountability (Yamini Aiyar)

Technology Innovations in M&E (Aparna Krishnan)

Managing and Commissioning Evaluations (Dr. Shreyasi Jha)

From Research to Policy (Pavan Mamidi)

Course Cast

Lecturers Teaching Assistants

Maya Escueta

Dr. Urmy Shukla

Ritambhara Mehta

Sree Sen

Yamini Aiyar

Dr. Sharon Barnhardt

Ranajit Bhattacharya

Diva Dhar

John Floretta

Dr Shreyasi Jha

Aparna Krishnan

Pavan Mamidi

Dr. Smriti Pahwa

Varad Pande

Marc Shotland

Dr. Anant Sudarshan

Dr. Wilima Wadhwa

Course Packet

Registration Forms

Agenda

Speaker Profiles

Participant Groups

Case Study: Expanding credit access: Assessing different impact evaluation

methods

Survey Instruments

Feedback Form

Course “Clickers”

Everyone gets one

Course “Clickers”: Have you used these before?

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