A fit-for-purpose, functional program is the vehicle that guarantees the relevance of an education system by ensuring the sustainability of the society. Failure of a program to be relevant has the potential to cause crisis in a society. This basic qualitative research study explored the experiences of the beneficiaries of a skills development…

This article describes the development and use of a rapid evaluation approach to meet program accountability and learning requirements in a research for development program operating in five developing countries. The method identifies clusters of outcomes, both expected and unexpected, happening within areas of change. In a workshop, change agents…

This article introduces the concept of "co-impact" to characterise the complex and dynamic process of social and economic change generated by participatory action research (PAR). It argues that dominant models of research impact tend to see it as a linear process, based on a donor-recipient model, occurring at the end of a project…

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are increasingly being used through the developing world to reduce inequality, break the intergenerational poverty cycle, and build human capital. These programs vary by country but typically make cash transfers conditional upon children meeting certain healthcare and educational standards. While previous…

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have spread worldwide as a new form of social assistance for the poor. Previous evaluations of CCT programs focus mainly on rural settings, and little is known about their effects in urban areas. This paper studies the short-term (1- and 2-year) effects of the Mexican "Oportunidades" CCT program…

Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) have two main objectives: reducing poverty and increasing the human capital of children. To reach these objectives, transfers are given to poor households conditioned on investments in their children's education, health, and nutrition. Targeting mechanisms used by CCTs have been generally successful in…

The SpringBoard Bursary Foundation (SpringBoard) commissioned the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) to undertake an evaluation of its activities and impacts between 2013 and 2018. This interim and summary report presents the findings of the first year of the evaluation. SpringBoard was established in 2012 to transform the lives of…

The Millennium Development Goals launched in 2001 provide a worldwide agenda to reduce poverty by 2015. Though the eight goals provide synergies for the rapid reduction of poverty, the MDGs have come under criticism for being too narrow and sometimes leaving out critical aspects of human development and well-being. Although the MDGs address some…

This article reports the achievement of a nine-year program in which students from Xinzhou Normal College participate in semester-long substitute teaching in disadvantaged schools in a poverty-stricken area of Shanxi province. The substitute teaching, which constitutes an important part of the 411 Project by Xinzhou Normal College, takes place in…

This report is one of a series of papers presented to encourage discussion on the evaluation of important development issues. The recent emphasis within the Agency for International Development (AID) on knowing the impacts of development assistance, particularly the benefit incidence of projects and programs, makes it important to look at the…

Assessment of welfare gains from a targeted social program can be seriously biased unless the endogeneity of program participation is addressed. Bias comes from two sources of placement endogeneity: the purposive targeting of geographic areas, and the targeting of individual recipients within selected areas. Partial decentralization of program…

What might family support services look like in the reconfigured children and family services after the Children Act? This is the question this article attempts to explore by drawing on evidence from the National Evaluation of the Children's Fund in England. The article describes common features in two case-study sites that might indicate the…

In 2005, an estimated 48 million children aged 0-18 years--12 percent of all children in sub-Saharan Africa--were orphans, and that number is expected to rise to 53 million by 2010. One quarter of all orphans are orphaned because of AIDS, and about 2.6 million children are currently infected with HIV. Untreated, most children born with HIV will…

This report reviews progress in implementation of the World Bank's poverty reduction strategy during fiscal 1996-97. Chapter 1, "The World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategy and Future Directions," outlines elements in the poverty reduction strategy: policies to promote broad-based labor-demanding growth and increase the productivity and…

Since its creation in 1991, the Peruvian Social Fund (FONCODES) has spent about $570 million funding micro-projects throughout the country. Many of these projects have involved the construction and renovation of school facilities, mainly primary schools in rural areas. FONCODES projects are driven by community demand and targeted using an index of…