Ravallion, Martin2012-05-292012-05-292008-03https://hdl.handle.net/10986/6561Knowledge about development effectiveness is constrained by two factors. First, the project staff in governments and international agencies who decide how much to invest in research on specific interventions are often not well informed about the returns to rigorous evaluation and (even when they are) cannot be expected to take full account of the external benefits to others from new knowledge. This leads to under-investment in evaluative research. Second, while standard methods of impact evaluation are useful, they often leave many questions about development effectiveness unanswered. The paper proposes ten steps for making evaluations more relevant to the needs of practitioners. It is argued that more attention needs to be given to identifying policy-relevant questions (including the case for intervention); that a broader approach should be taken to the problems of internal validity; and that the problems of external validity (including scaling up) merit more attention.CC BY 3.0 IGOACADEMIC RESEARCHADVOCACY ROLEANTIPOVERTY PROGRAMANTIPOVERTY PROGRAMSBENEFICIARIESCHILD LABORCITIZENSCONTROL GROUPSCORRUPTIONCOUNTERFACTUALDATA ANALYSISDATA COLLECTIONDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCEDEVELOPMENT EFFORTSDEVELOPMENT GOALSDEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONSDEVELOPMENT POLICIESDEVELOPMENT POLICYDEVELOPMENT RESEARCHDISSEMINATIONECONOMIC POLICIESEMPLOYMENTEVALUATION METHODSEVALUATION RESULTSEVALUATION STUDIESEVALUATION TECHNIQUESEXPERIMENTAL METHODSEXPERIMENTSFERTILITYFIELD WORKFINAL OUTCOMESFINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSGLOBAL POVERTYHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHUMAN RESOURCESIMPACT ASSESSMENTIMPACT EVALUATIONINCOMEINFORMATION ASYMMETRIESINFORMATION SYSTEMINFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTSINSTRUMENTAL VARIABLESINTERMEDIATE INDICATORSINTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTEINTERNATIONAL TRADEINTERVENTIONINTERVIEWSKNOWLEDGE GENERATIONLABOR FORCELABOR MARKETLEARNINGLITERATURELIVELIHOODSLIVING STANDARDSLOCAL COMMUNITIESMETHODOLOGICAL RESEARCHMETHODOLOGYMIGRATIONMODELINGMONITORING DATANGONUMBER OF PEOPLENUTRITIONNUTRITIONAL STATUSOUTCOME INDICATORSPERSISTENT POVERTYPOLICY CHANGEPOLICY IMPLICATIONSPOLICY MAKERSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOLITICAL SUPPORTPOOR NATIONSPOOR PEOPLEPOVERTY IMPACTSPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY MONITORINGPOVERTY OUTCOMESPOVERTY REDUCTIONPOVERTY REDUCTION PROGRAMSPRACTITIONERSPROGRAM EVALUATIONPROGRAM IMPACTSPROGRAMSPROGRESSPROJECT MONITORINGPUBLIC SUPPORTPUBLISHERSQUALITATIVE RESEARCHRESEARCH AGENDARESEARCH COMMUNITYRESEARCH FINDINGSRESEARCH NEEDSRESEARCH PROJECTSRESEARCH WORKING PAPERSRESEARCHERSSAFETY NETSCHOOLSSCIENCESSCIENTIFIC CRITERIASCIENTISTSECONDARY SCHOOLSECONDARY SCHOOLINGSELECTION BIASSERVICE PROVIDERSSERVICE PROVISIONSIMULATIONSIMULATION METHODSSIMULATIONSSOCIAL IMPACTSOCIAL PROGRAMSSOCIAL RETURNSSOCIAL SCIENCESOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCHSOCIAL SCIENCESSOCIAL WELFARESPILLOVERSURVEY DATATARGETINGTREATMENT EFFECTSTUITIONUNIVERSITY COLLEGEVALIDITYVILLAGE CHARACTERISTICSWORKERSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4547