Developing a Research Agenda for Impact Evaluation in Development

This article, written by Patricia Rogers and Greet Peersman for the IDS Bulletin, looks at the requirements for developing a research agenda for impact evaluation. It examines the process involved and outlines four key areas where research is needed. It continues by reviewing a variety of research methods that can be used in an impact evaluation and provides a number of examples of research questions that can be used. 

Excerpt

"This article provides a starting point for the development of a formal and collaborative research agenda. It begins by defining why a research agenda is needed and what it would cover. It outlines four areas of impact evaluation where research is needed – enabling environment, practice, products and impacts. It reviews the different methods that can be used to research impact evaluation and argues for particular attention to detailed, theory-informed, mixed-method comparative case studies of the actual processes and impacts of impact evaluation. It explores some examples of research questions that would be valuable to focus on and how they might be addressed – not to provide a definitive review of each topic but to illustrate the scope and approach needed. Finally, it makes some suggestions about the process that is needed to create a research agenda that is not just a wish list or arena for fighting for resources by evaluators, but a productive collaboration among the various parties needed to bring the research agenda to life."

Contents

  • Why do we need research on impact evaluation in development?
  • What is a research agenda and how should it be developed?
  • What needs to be researched?
  • How impact evaluation should be researched
  • Examples of important research questions about impact evaluation and how they might be answered

Sources

Rogers, P. & Peersman, G. (2014). "Developing a Research Agenda for Impact Evaluation in Development", IDS Bulletin, Volume 45 Number 6, pps 85 - 99. Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1759-5436.12115/pdf