New IDS Mixtapes

The IDS Bulletin has just launched its own playlist function.

We will be mixing and matching articles over the years to create our own "mixtapes" on contemporary issues, providing some historical context, and highlighting where ideas and issues have evolved over the years and--more interestingly perhaps--where they have not.

The articles are free to download. The first issue is on impact and aid effectiveness. The articles are listed below. We will do several of these every year.

I find the last three papers particularly interesting as they all--in one way or another--focus on capacity to collect, analyse and act on the information gathered. The coming wave of systematic reviews and impact evaluations run the risk of overloading policymakers and practitioners if their capacity--at the individual, organisational and institutional levels--are not enhanced. Drinking from a fire hydrant is one expression that comes to mind.

More resources have to be devoted to developing effective consumers of this information. That means building in core time for "thinking days", looking afresh at short-courses, and allocating M & E resources to the users of the evaluation data in addition to the generators of it. It also means focusing more M & E attention on capacity development itself, which is a bit of a soft underbelly when it comes to accountable ODA expenditure.

Impact and Aid Effectiveness: Mapping the Issues and Their Consequences

• A Revolution Whose Time Has Come? The Win-Win of Quantitative Participatory Approaches and Methods. IDS Bulletin Volume 41, Issue 6, November 2010. Robert Chambers
• Impact of Microfinance on Rural Households in the Philippines. IDS Bulletin Volume 39, Issue 1, March 2008. Toshio Kondo, Aniceto Orbeta, Clarence Dingcong and Christine Infantado
• You Can Get It If You Really Want': Impact Evaluation Experience of the Office of Evaluation and Oversight of the Inter-American Development Bank. IDS Bulletin Volume 39, Issue 1, March 2008. Inder Jit Ruprah
• The Role of Evaluation in Accountability in Donor-Funded Projects. IDS Bulletin Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2000. Adebiyi Edun Micro-Credit Programme Evaluation: A Critical Review. IDS Bulletin Volume 29, Issue 4, October 1998. Shahidur R. Khandker
• Macroeconomic Evaluation of Programme Aid: A Conceptual Framework. IDS Bulletin Volume 27, Issue 4, October 1996. Howard White Measurement of Poverty and Poverty of Measurement. IDS Bulletin Volume 25, Issue 2, April 1994. Martin Greeley
• Developing Effective Study Programmes for Public Administrators. IDS Bulletin Volume 8, Issue 4, May 2009. Ron Goslin
• Improving the Effectiveness of Evaluation in Rural Development Projects. IDS Bulletin Volume 8, Issue 1, July 1976. B. H. Kinsey
• Managing Rural Development. IDS Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 1, September 1974. Robert Chambers.