3ie news: upcoming calls for proposals; Paying Primary Health Care Centers for Performance in Rwanda; and new publications

- NEW 3ie WINDOW GRANTS: The call for proposals for Open Window Round 3 will be launched in May 2010 with a submission deadline in July 2010. In addition, a new window targeting policy makers and program managers will be launched later this year. This new grant scheme will first invite Government agencies and NGOs to propose interventions and flagship programs to be evaluated. In a second phase, an international tender will be made for the selected interventions. More information soon to be posted on www.3ieimpact.org

- Ongoing call for Synthetic Reviews:
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is piloting a systematic review project to strengthen evidence-based policy making. DFID will commission 40 reviews in March 2010 focusing on five thematic areas: Agriculture and Food, Climate and the Environment, Governance in Challenging Environment, Growth and Human Development.
 

Systematic reviews examine the existing evidence on a particular intervention or program in low and middle income countries, drawing also on evidence from developed countries when pertinent. The studies should be carried out according to the Cochrane Handbook and will be subject to external review managed by 3ie. DFID is also partnering with the EPPI-Centre at the Institute of Education to provide technical assistance and training workshops for reviewers.

This is an opportunity to work on highly policy relevant research and be part of a programme to strengthen evidence-informed policy making. Deadline: March 24. Read more.
If you are interested in responding to this call, please e-mail hwaddington@3ieimpact.org

- Evaluation in focus - Rwanda Pay for Performance in Health:
The evaluation "Paying Primary Health Care Centers for Performance in Rwanda" is the first-ever rigorous study of Pay for Performance programs in low-income countries. The study shows that financial performance incentives can improve both the use of and the quality of health services. The results indicate that an equal amount of financial resources without the incentives would not have achieved the same gain in outcomes. Download study.

- Call for Abstracts - European Evaluation Society Conference:
The 9th European Evaluation Society International Conference "Evaluation in Public Interest - Participation, Politics and Policy", Prague October 6-8, Czech Republic, just launched a call for abstracts. The conference overarching theme is "methodology, standards impact and effects". It will cover the following strands: (i) Ethics, capabilities and transparency; (ii) Evaluation and politics; (iii) Evaluation producers, beneficiaries, users, and decision makers; (iv) Sector policy evaluation; and (v) Evaluation in developing and transition economies. Deadline for submission: February 18. Read more.

- Fellowship
The ILO Micro-insurance Fellowship program is advertising a fellowship posting at the Micro Insurance Academy in New Delhi. Deadline: March 2010. Read more.

- Interesting read - New issue of JDEff and 3ie Working Papers
NEW Issue of the Journal of Development Effectiveness now available: Read more and order articles.

3ie Working Paper 5 "Impact evaluation in the post-disaster setting" by Alison Buttenheim. The paper reviews existing work, synthesizes a set of guiding principles and analytic frameworks for post-disaster impact evaluation, and applies those to a design for the evaluation of relief and recovery programs following the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

3ie Working Paper 6 "A checklist for the reporting of randomized control trials of social and economic policy interventions in developing countries" by Ron Bose.

- Video
"Evaluations to impact policy" interview with Prof. Paul Gertler from University of California at Berkeley & Chairman of 3ie. To view.