This post was written by NIERA Program Manager Jennifer Nyakinya and Program Assistant Anne Maina.

On April 6, 2021, the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA) in partnership with IDinsight facilitated a Decision Focused Evaluation (DFE) Training that preceded the 2021 Africa Evidence Summit cohosted with the Center for Effective Global Challenges (CEGA). The training was attended by a collective group of 74 academicians, policy makers, public and private sector professionals across 11 countries in Africa and the Globe.

The ultimate goal of the training was to introduce participants to basic Impact Evaluation (IE) and DFE concepts; learn to appreciate the tradeoffs in using different experimental research designs and gain an understanding on how to apply these concepts in their daily work.

The training featured sessions and discussions from NIERA members - Tigist Mekonnen Melesse & Samuel Muhula and our collaborators from IDinsight – Alison Connor. The topics included the definitions of IE and identified common methods and principles; Key DFE concepts and its differentiation to Knowledge Focused Evaluations; IE Designs including Randomized Controlled Trials, Regression Discontinuity and Difference -in- Differences; The interlink between DFE, policy making and development programs.

This was part of NIERA’s ongoing capacity building drive targeting policy makers, media practitioners, grant funders, program designers and implementers across East Africa. For an opportunity to learn in-depth DFE concepts and application of methods in specific local contexts and endeavors, see below schedule of our upcoming trainings:

For more information on the above trainings please visit our events page.