When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages

When is the rigorous impact evaluation of development projects a luxury, and when a necessity? The authors study one high-profile case: the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa. They illust...

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Main Authors:	Clemens, Michael A., Demombynes, Gabriel
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2013
Subjects:	evaluation village package Millennium Development Goals MDGs
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13323

id	okr-10986-13323
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-133232021-04-23T14:03:07Z When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages Clemens, Michael A. Demombynes, Gabriel evaluation village package Millennium Development Goals MDGs When is the rigorous impact evaluation of development projects a luxury, and when a necessity? The authors study one high-profile case: the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa. They illustrate the benefits of rigorous impact evaluation in this setting by showing that estimates of the project's effects depend heavily on the evaluation method. Comparing trends at the MVP intervention sites in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria with trends in the surrounding areas yields much more modest estimates of the project's effects than the before-versus-after comparisons published thus far by the MVP. Neither approach constitutes a rigorous impact evaluation of the MVP, which is impossible to perform due to weaknesses in the evaluation design of the project's initial phase. These weaknesses include the subjective choice of intervention sites, the subjective choice of comparison sites, the lack of baseline data on comparison sites, the small sample size, and the short time horizon. The authors describe one of many ways that the next wave of the intervention could be designed to allow proper evaluation of the MVP's impact at little additional cost. 2013-05-07T19:02:25Z 2013-05-07T19:02:25Z 2011-09-26 Journal Article Journal of Development Effectiveness 1943-9342 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13323 en_US Journal of Development Effectiveness;3(3) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Taylor and Francis Journal Article Ghana Kenya Nigeria
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	evaluation village package Millennium Development Goals MDGs
spellingShingle	evaluation village package Millennium Development Goals MDGs Clemens, Michael A. Demombynes, Gabriel When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages
geographic_facet	Ghana Kenya Nigeria
relation	Journal of Development Effectiveness;3(3)
description	When is the rigorous impact evaluation of development projects a luxury, and when a necessity? The authors study one high-profile case: the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa. They illustrate the benefits of rigorous impact evaluation in this setting by showing that estimates of the project's effects depend heavily on the evaluation method. Comparing trends at the MVP intervention sites in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria with trends in the surrounding areas yields much more modest estimates of the project's effects than the before-versus-after comparisons published thus far by the MVP. Neither approach constitutes a rigorous impact evaluation of the MVP, which is impossible to perform due to weaknesses in the evaluation design of the project's initial phase. These weaknesses include the subjective choice of intervention sites, the subjective choice of comparison sites, the lack of baseline data on comparison sites, the small sample size, and the short time horizon. The authors describe one of many ways that the next wave of the intervention could be designed to allow proper evaluation of the MVP's impact at little additional cost.
format	Journal Article
author	Clemens, Michael A. Demombynes, Gabriel
author_facet	Clemens, Michael A. Demombynes, Gabriel
author_sort	Clemens, Michael A.
title	When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages
title_short	When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages
title_full	When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages
title_fullStr	When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages
title_full_unstemmed	When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages
title_sort	when does rigorous impact evaluation make a difference? the case of the millennium villages
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13323
_version_	1764423189769748480

When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages

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