Highlights

Boller Presented at International Meeting in Uganda Kimberly Boller, senior fellow, participated in the “Learning to Improve Learning from Evidence and Practice of Early Primary Interventions in India and Sub-Saharan Africa” international meeting from June 11to 14, 2013 in Uganda. Hosted by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the conference focused on findings from the foundation’s Quality Education in Developing Countries Initiative, with over 70 participants sharing and synthesizing lessons learned about good practices and challenges in scaling up early primary school learning interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Boller presented on the application of implementation science ideas to external and internal monitoring and evaluation activities. She also facilitated a discussion session, “The Evaluation Experience: What Have We Learned About How to Evaluate Learning Interventions Implemented in Government Systems?”

Seminar Series: “Designing Experiments for Better External Validity” Assistant Professor of Economics University of California San Diego May 2013 Listen to the recording. Karthik Muralidharan

Recent Work

Armenia:
"Should Foreign Aid Fund Agricultural Training? Evidence from Armenia," Working Paper (August 2013)
"Evaluation of Water-to-Market Training in Armenia" (October 2012)

Bihar, India:
"Measurement, Learning, and Evaluation for the Ananya Program (Family Health Initiative in Bihar)" (October 2011)

Burkina Faso:
"The Effects of "Girl-Friendly" Schools: Evidence from the BRIGHT School Construction Program in Burkina Faso." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (July 2013)
"The Effects of 'Girl-Friendly' Schools: Evidence from the BRIGHT School Construction Program in Burkina Faso," Working Paper (May 2012)

Columbia:
"Subsidized Childcare and Child Development in Columbia: Effects of Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar as a Function of Timing and Length of Exposure." Social Science & Medicine (subscription required) (December 2012)

El Salvador:
"Impact Evaluation Findings After One Year of the Productive and Business Services Activity of the Productive Development Project, El Salvador" (August 2012)

Indonesia:
"Improving Sanitation at Scale: Lessons from TSSM Implementation in East Java, Indonesia" (June 2011)

Ireland and Northern Ireland:
"The Atlantic Philanthropies' Children and Youth Programme in Ireland and Northern Ireland: 2011 Programme Evaluation Findings" (October 2012)

Niger:
"Impact Evaluation of Niger's IMAGINE Program" (September 2011)

Rwanda:
"Evaluation of the Rwanda Threshold Program: Baseline Report" (October 2011)

Tanzania:
"Evaluation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Electricity-Transmission and Distribution Line-Extension Activity in Tanzania: Baseline Report" (November 2012)
"Tanzania Energy Sector Impact Evaluation: Findings from the Zanzibar Baseline Study" (March 2011)

Conferences

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Conference—June 11-14, 2013—Uganda
“Learning to Improve Learning from Evidence and Practice of Early Primary Interventions in India and Sub-Saharan Africa”
Kimberly Boller, senior fellow, presented on the application of implementation science ideas to external and internal monitoring and evaluation activities. She also facilitated a discussion session, “The Evaluation Experience: What Have We Learned About How to Evaluate Learning Interventions Implemented in Government Systems?”

Society for Research in Child Development PreConference (June 2013 Update)
"Interventions for Children and Youth in Developing Countries"
Matt Sloan discussed findings from a MCC-funded intervention aimed at improving girls’ primary education outcomes in Burkina Faso (Bright I and II). Camila Fernandez presented findings from a case study on an intervention linking child care training and home visiting in Colombia. A short piece based on that presentation was published in the in the Early Childhood Matters series from the Van Leer Foundation.

Seventh Annual Research Conference on Population, Reproductive Health, and Economic Development—January 23-26, 2013—Oslo, Norway
Ali Protik, Hewlett and Population Reference Bureau dissertation fellow

American Economic Association—January 4, 2013—San Diego, CA 
"Is Agricultural Training a Good Investment in Developing Countries? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Armenia"
Kenneth Fortson (presenter), Randall Blair, Anu Rangarajan, Joanne Lee Valentine Gilbert | PowerPoint presentation (PDF)

Third Meeting of the Colombian M&E Network—November 27-28, 2012—Bogota, Colombia
Larissa Campuzano: "Impact Evaluations: Fundamentals and Two Examples" | PowerPoint presentation in Spanish (PDF)

Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)—November 10-12, 2012—Baltimore, MD
"Is Agricultural Training a Good Investment in Developing Countries? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Armenia"
Kenneth Fortson, Anu Rangarajan, (presenter), Randall Blair, Joanne Lee, Valentine Gilbert  | PowerPoint presentation (PDF)

More

Events

"Designing Experiments for Better External Validity" (recording available) Karthik Muralidharan, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego May 2013

"Worms at Work: Long-Run Impacts of Child Health Gains"
Edward Miguel, Oxfam professor in Environmental and Resource Economics and faculty director of the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley, presented his work on the long-run impacts of deworming.
February 2013