From the Asian Development Bank to the U.S. Agency for International Development, donors across the board are beginning to embed impact evaluations into their practices.
Widely seen as a key tool for promoting aid effectiveness, impact evaluations are designed to examine whether specific programs produce a measurable development impact. For instance, an impact evaluation of the Philippines’ World Bank- and ADB-funded conditional cash transfer program demonstrated gains in reducing stunting in children and increases in school enrolment.
Yet amid the increasing use of impact evaluations in the donor community, one key question is often overlooked: How much do they actually cost?