Call for Participation in AIR-AERC 2026 Impact Evaluation Retooling Workshop

The Impact Evaluation Retooling Workshop

Background

Every year, large amounts of resources are spent implementing social and economic policies. In a context of limited resources, it is important for policymakers, programme managers, and civil society to examine whether programmes are having their intended impact. Good evaluations play an important role by providing concrete evidence of the impact of programmes on target populations. Does a programme have an impact? Does the programme have a different impact on different groups of people? Do different programme components have different impacts? Why and how does the programme have an impact? Which programmes are more cost effective in achieving desired outcomes? Those are important questions that can be answered by rigorous evaluations. In this workshop, methods for providing answers to some of those questions will be reviewed. The limitations of the methods and the conditions under which they provide valid answers will also be reviewed.

Objectives

The course will provide intensive training in the concepts of programme evaluation and in the designs and techniques for evaluating programme impact. The main workshop objectives are to:

1. Understand the basic concepts of programme and policy impact evaluation.
2. Define the impact evaluation questions and to examine the main issues to consider for answering those questions in a valid way, including gender and other group-specific heterogeneity.
3. Review the main evaluation designs and estimation methods used for evaluating programme impact.
4. To develop criteria for choosing the appropriate estimation strategy given different scenarios of programme characteristics and data availability.
5. To interpret results appropriately and to examine the programmatic implications of results.
6. To gain practical experience applying the estimation strategies and quantitative tools.

Workshop Content

This hands-on training will cover the following areas:

1. Difference between impact evaluation and other types of evaluation.
2. Answering the impact evaluation question.
3. Evaluation designs and key issues to consider: confounding, selectivity, externalities, contamination, and others.
4. Experimental designs, matching and regression-discontinuity.
5. Selectivity and endogeneity problems: causes, consequences, and solutions.
6. Instrumental variables methods.
7. Difference-in-differences.

The workshop consists of lectures, Stata practical sessions and case studies. Participants are encouraged to bring their own cases of programmes they are evaluating in their countries for discussion with the trainers.

Training Facilitators

The course is a collaboration between the AIR and AERC. It is designed and taught by experts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, AIR, and UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight.

Dates and Structure of the Workshop

A face-to-face approach will be used to conduct the workshop from June 28 – July 4, 2026, as follows:

June 28, 2026: Arrival of participants in Nairobi, Kenya.

June 29-July 4, 2026: Full day face-to-face instruction.

July 5, 2026: Departure of participants.

Eligibility

To qualify for participation in the Impact Evaluation workshop, an applicant must:

1.  Be a national of an African country.
2.  Hold a PhD degree in Economics, Agricultural Economics, or related field from a recognized institution.
3.  Be a teaching faculty at an African university and/or early-career researcher.
4.  Published in refereed/peer reviewed outlets (journal articles, books and book chapters).
5.  Computer literacy, experience with household survey data, and knowledge of regression analysis is essential. The course will be taught in English with French simultaneous interpretation.

Note: Female applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.