Deadline: 12-Nov-21
Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) launches a new initiative for Strengthening Impact Evaluation Capacities for Development (SIECD) in East and West Africa to strengthen experimental Impact Evaluation (IE) capacities among experienced researchers and within governments in East and West Africa. It also aims to increase the demand for rigorous evaluations from these governments.
The SIECD initiative will enhance the technical skills of in-country PEP alumni and other senior local researchers in conducting IE research in an autonomous manner. It will target governments to boost their capacities in commissioning and implementing sound IEs that can inform decisions on local priority issues.
The selected project teams will be composed of government officers alongside local researchers with a long-term commitment to policy evaluation, who are willing to undergo training sessions and acquire practical knowledge on Impact Evaluation. The team members will receive advanced practical training in Impact Evaluation coupled with beginning-to-end customized technical assistance and mentoring as they evaluate a policy initiative of their choosing.
Applicant teams must present a new or existing program that has not been evaluated in the past, for which high quality evidence about program effectiveness is absent.
Funding Information
Funding for the evaluation project up to $US 114K, including:
- A $US 24K research (cash) grant
- A $US 50K data collection grant
- Up to $US 40K in various subsidies, such as for participation in PEP meetings and study visits, publications in peer-reviewed journals, presentations in international conferences, and the organization of national policy conferences, etc.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicant teams must be comprised of government officers and local researchers, all of whom are nationals of and will reside during the full course of the project in one of the following countries:
- West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.
- East Africa: British Indian Ocean Territory, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, French Southern Territories, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
- Applicant teams must be composed of a government sub-team and a research subteam.
- Government sub-team
- 3 members, including at least one woman
- One (1) senior government official with a proven capacity to decide on the implementation of the program proposed for evaluation.
- The relevance of this representative in informing key decisions must be ensured.
- There is no gender preference for this role.
- Two (2) government officers who are motivated to learn about impact evaluation and committed to work in the evaluation of the proposed project.
- Research sub-team
- 4 members, including at least two women
- One (1) principal researcher with a doctoral degree in economics, statistics or equivalent and proven participation in at least one randomized controlled trial (RCT) impact evaluation. This person will serve as leader of the research sub-team and will be responsible for research activities in collaboration with the PEP scientific mentors.
- One (1) co-researcher with a doctoral degree in economics, statistics or equivalent and proven participation (in any capacity) in at least one published academic paper. Proved experience in RCTs is a plus.
- Two (2) assistant researchers holding a post-graduate degree or currently being enrolled in a post-graduate program in economics, statistics or equivalent, who wish to gain first-hand experience on research and policy analysis.
For more information, visit https://www.pep-net.org/call-proposals