On reporting processes and details

This is a joint post with Urmy Shukla. . In this blog, we advocate the importance of in-depth reporting on implementation processes, evaluation processes, and relevant contextual details of interventions and linked evaluations. This will facilitate research transparency, as well as assessments of both learning and the potential for generalizability beyond the original study settingContinueContinue reading “On reporting processes and details”

Thinking through funnels of attrition

When first introduced to the idea of a funnel of attrition (my early attempt at a slightly more nuanced and symmetric — but still generic — version is here), I largely thought of it as a useful heuristic for thinking about sample size calculations, by being forced to think about issues of awareness and take-upContinueContinue reading “Thinking through funnels of attrition”

For theories of change and study planning, assumptions don’t make an ass of u & me

Two nice posts came out yesterday that relate directly or tangentially to building theories of change. David Evans wrote about, inter alia, what lies behind a null finding, here. Marcus Jenal wrote here about how complexity shouldn’t stop us from building theories of change, up front, so long as we stand ready to adapt (parts*)ContinueContinue reading “For theories of change and study planning, assumptions don’t make an ass of u & me”

I feel like an #oddeven party pooper (reducing and working are not the same)

There are two nice, evidence-informed op-ed pieces out today on Delhi’s odd-even scheme to try to reduce air pollution (here and here). The results are heartening because I didn’t have a good sense of whether a two-week window of implementing a policy — to which there were many exceptions — was long enough to potentiallyContinueContinue reading “I feel like an #oddeven party pooper (reducing and working are not the same)”

Delhi’s #oddeven plan had a significant effect on pollution

Originally posted on Suvojit Chattopadhyay:
Researchers Michael Greenstone, Santosh Harish and Anant Sudarshan have some news for us. Hard data that shows that the Odd-Even plan reduced pollution by significant levels in Delhi. The headline: this study finds there was an 18% reduction in PM 2.5 due to the pilot during the hours that the rule was…

Strategy testing: a start

Thanks to Craig Valters, I was recently pointed towards a new case study In the Asia foundation’s working politically in practice series, focused on a ‘new’ approach called strategy testing. Overall, I am sympathetic to much of the approach, though since I believe it has much in common with prototyping, product design and refinement, reasonableContinueContinue reading “Strategy testing: a start”

More from #evalcon: program planning

Disclaimer: I always get quite frustrated when people seem to be reinventing the wheel, especially when at least the contours of the wheel could be found with a reasonable literature review that was somewhat cross-disciplinary (I am pretty sure this is still a reasonable expectation… perhaps part of the problem is that literature is insufficientlyContinueContinue reading “More from #evalcon: program planning”

Thoughts from #evalcon on evidence uptake, capacity building

I attended a great panel today, hosted by the thintankinitiative.org and IDRC and featuring representatives from three of TTI’s cohort of think tanks. This is part of the broader global evaluation week (#evalcon) happening in Kathmandu and focused on building bridges: use of evaluation for decision making and policy influence. The notes on evidence-uptake largely comeContinueContinue reading “Thoughts from #evalcon on evidence uptake, capacity building”