When we will ever learn : improving lives through impact evaluation
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This is a report of the Evaluation Gap Working Group, created to investigate why rigorous impact evaluations of social development programmes are relatively rare. An evaluation gap exists because there are few incentives, and considerable resource and time constraints. This results in a costly and persistent lack of sufficient knowledge and learning about the effects of policies and programmes. At an individual level, the report recommends a reinforcement of existing efforts, with improvement on monitoring and evaluation systems and capacity development. It also calls for collective action, that should be led by a 'council', representing all stakeholders, including governments and NGOs. Core functions of the council should include: establishing quality standards for rigorous evaluations; administering a review process for evaluation designs and studies; identifying priority topics; providing grants for impact evaluation design