Impact evaluation

An impact evaluation is a tool within the larger toolkit of monitoring and evaluation. It is used to identify the causal impact of a project, program, or policy. Impact evaluations therefore provide invaluable guidance for policymaking and can help avoid wasteful spending on ineffective or weakly effective interventions.

Despite the positive trend in the number and quality of impact evaluations being conducted internationally, there is still potential to improve the generation and use of evidence in the development sector.

Impact Award

Impact evaluations are often perceived as costly, complex, and time-consuming, with the consequence that few NGOs use them for project planning. To help overcome these hurdles, NADEL and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) launched the “Impact Award” in 2015. Between 2015 and 2022, financial contributions from SDC and technical support from NADEL enabled the award to be presented seven times across several thematic areas. Results of the impact studies can be found here:

2020 Award Winners

La Fondation du Centre Ecologique Albert Schweitzer (CEAS) and Universite Thomas Sankara measured the impact of locally produced low cost beehives on the beekeeping sector in Burkina Faso.
Vivamos Mejor, the University of Lausanne, and Universidad de los Andes assessed the impact of combining vocational education with youth empowerment on mental weel-being of young adults in Colombia.
DownloadRead the policy brief by Vivamos Mejor, UNIL and the Universidad de los Andes (PDF, 1.6 MB)
La Fondation Hirondelle and Michigan State University evaluated the impact of a radio discussion program on political and civic attitudes of young people in Madagascar.

2017 Award Winners

Consciente partnered with the University of Bern to compare the effectiveness of computer-assisted learning (CAL) software with traditional teaching in El Salvadorian primary schools.
DownloadRead the policy brief by Consciente and the University of Berne (PDF, 625 KB)
Swiss Red Cross (SRC) and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne measured the impact of a community-based disaster risk management program in Honduras
DownloadRead the policy brief by SRC and EPFL (PDF, 215 KB)

2015 Award Winners

Vivamos Mejor and the University of Lausanne studied the impact of professionalized community-based childcare on school performance of disadvantaged children.
DownloadRead the policy brief by Vivamos Mejor and the University of Lausanne (PDF, 1.7 MB)

Terre des Hommes and the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine studied the impact of a digital diagnostic tool on medical treatment for children under 5 years in Benin.
DownloadRead the policy brief by TdH and the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine (PDF, 1.1 MB)