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Impact Evaluation for FinancialInclusion

23 January 2013

Connecting Funders and Researchers on Impact Evaluation for Financial

Inclusion

CGAP and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) convened over

70 people including financial sector specialists and evaluation staff of regional

development banks, development finance institutions, and foundations as well as

researchers for a workshop on impact evaluation for financial inclusion on 10-11

January 2013 in London.

The mounting call for rigorous evaluation in development overall combined the

debates about the impact of microfinance, have placed funders of financial inclusion

under special pressure. Funders are also committed to improving the evidence

base. The challenge is: how to find appropriate approaches to impact evaluation

that are rigorous yet also pragmatic and cost-effective. The workshop was an

opportunity to start tackling this challenge. In welcoming the participants, Alexia

Latortue, Deputy CEO of CGAP, shared the aspiration that progress on impact

research and the growing evidence base be matched by a better understanding of

how to act on evidence for better decision-making.

The first day was dedicated to discussing different research methods for impact

evaluation. Philip Davies, Deputy Director of 3ie, set the stage by stressing the

importance of asking the right questions before launching into research design.

Nathanael Goldberg, Policy Director at Innovations for Poverty Action, presented

approaches to conducting randomized controlled evaluations, while Alexis Diamond,

Results Measurement Specialist at IFC, gave an overview of quantitative non-experimental methods (quasi experiments). Syed Hashemi, Founder and Director of

the BRAC Development Institute, outlined qualitative research methods. The

researchers highlighted the advantages and limitations of each method.

Participants strongly suggested that using mixed methods combining qualitative

and quantitative methods is best suited for impact studies that enable them to

learn not only what change happened following their interventions, but alsowhy.

The second day was designed with an interactive format for the participants to

discuss specific questions and challenges in using impact evaluations to inform

program and policy decisions. Discussions ranged from how much money should be

allocated to evaluation as a percentage of overall program budgets to how to incite

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Topics: Impact | Funder Effectiveness

private sector partners to share data needed for sound evaluation. Special sessions

on specific aspects of financial inclusion work, including mobile banking and

interventions at the meso- and macro-level, also advanced challenges and ideas for

smart evaluation.

Stefan Dercon, Chief Economist at DFID, asked participants to reflect on the way

impact evaluation is used today to inform policy: While evidence has alwaysmattered, it is the way we produce and use it that has changed.

http://www.cgap.org/topics/impacthttp://www.cgap.org/topics/funder-effectiveness