Publications

This policy brief presents the findings of an Evidence Gap Map (EGM) that depicts the available evidence on cash transfers and cash plus programs across a wide range of outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. The EGM facilitates evidence-informed decision-making in social protection by enabling easy access to the existing rigorous evidence. It also seeks to address the current lack of a systematic mapping of the evidence on the impact of cash transfers. This policy brief pinpoints critical areas and populations for which limited or no evidence exists, and hence suggests potential avenues for closing those knowledge gaps.

• Pasha, A., V. Urueña, S. Knoll, K. Wolf, C. De Swardt, M. Featherston-Lardeux and D. Hörner (2024), Evidence Gap Map: Social Protection. Cash Transfers and Cash Plus Programs in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: Policy Brief, Center for Evaluation and Development (C4ED) and German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Bonn.

In recent years, the body of evidence on the effects of cash transfers and cash plus interventions has increased significantly, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. The range of studied outcomes spans diverse fields such as health, education, consumption, and women's empowerment. As more studies and information become available, the need for synthesis and evidence mapping becomes ever greater. This evidence gap map aims to facilitate evidence-informed decision-making by enabling easy access to the existing rigorous evidence on cash transfers and cash plus programs in low- and middle-income countries. It includes a total of 709 impact evaluations and 33 systematic reviews and provides a visual and interactive representation of these studies in a framework of cash transfer types and a broad range of outcomes. Moreover, it pinpoints critical areas with limited or no evidence, highlighting areas in which more impact evaluations or syntheses are needed.

• Pasha, A., V. Urueña, S. Knoll, K. Wolf, C. De Swardt, M. Featherston-Lardeux and D. Hörner (2023), Cash Transfers and Cash Plus Programs in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: Evidence Gap Map, Center for Evaluation and Development (C4ED) and German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Bonn.

In an implementation monitoring process DEval assesses the extent to which the recommendations of DEval evaluations have actually been implemented in development policy practice and to what extent the changes suggested by these recommendations have occurred. This first synthesis report summarises the findings from a pilot phase of implementation monitoring. It looks at recommendations from ten DEval evaluations published between 2015 and 2018. The transparent presentation of how addressees dealt with the recommendations and the derivation of conclusions as well as possible learning potential, for both DEval and the addressees, contributes to improving evaluations, their recommendations and their implementation.

• DEval (2023), Implementation of Recommendations from DEval Evaluations. Synthesis of the Implementation Monitoring of DEval Evaluation Recommendations (2015 – 2018), German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Bonn.

The interim report of the 2030 Agenda in summer 2023 shows that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved by 2030 with the progress that is currently observed. In addition, the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the numerous wars and conflicts as well as economic challenges are likely to further set back the achievement of the goals. In the year marking the half-way point of the 2030 Agenda, the United Nations (UN) is therefore calling on all countries to intensify their efforts. At the same time, all citizens continue to be called on to make their own contributions to sustainable global development. Against this backdrop, it is important to continuously monitor public perception of the 2030 Agenda. The German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) has therefore analysed how awareness of the SDGs has changed since 2015 and how the attitude of the German population towards the 2030 Agenda has changed compared to 2017.

• Schneider, S. H., A. Gödderz, H. Zille and M. Bruder (2024), Public Opinion of the 2030 Agenda: A Mid-Term Review, DEval Policy Brief 1/2024, German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Bonn.

This rapid evidence review investigates the effects of cash transfers and cash transfer plus programs on sexual and reproductive health outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results are drawn from 29 impact evaluations (experimental and quasi-experimental studies) across 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and seven systematic reviews containing studies that were conducted in the same region. The included studies were selected following a systematic and transparent search and screening strategy, and clear inclusion criteria. In these studies, most cash transfer interventions have a conditional component, with education-related conditionalities such as school enrolment being the most prevalent feature. The most common plus-component utilized is behavioral change communication. For the analysis of effects, sexual and reproductive health outcomes were grouped into four different categories: 1) Knowledge and attitudes, 2) behavioral outcomes (with the subcategories sexual behavior, health service utilization for perinatal care, and health service utilization for other sexual and reproductive health services), 3) reproductive and fertility outcomes, and 4) health outcomes.

• Urueña, V., D. Hörner, A. Pasha, C. de Swardt, M. Stelter, A. Nikiema, Z. Aitmambet and K. Wolf
  (2023), The Effects of Cash Transfers and Cash Plus Programs on Sexual and Reproductive
  Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Rapid Evidence Review, Center for Evaluation and Development
  (C4ED) and German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Bonn.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the international community will need rigorous evidence about which programmes and policies are most effective in improving indicators related to the goals. The Development Evidence Portal (DEP), maintained by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), is a database that gathers such evidence for low- and middle-income countries, in the form of impact evaluations and systematic reviews. In this report, we analyse data from the DEP to answer the following questions: What is the state of the evidence base for the SDGs, and where are the gaps in the evidence? We provide an overview of the evidence base across the SDG agenda, followed by a series of dashboards summarising the state of the evidence for each of the 17 SDGs between 1990 and 2022.

• Engelbert, Mark, Zafeer Ravat, Cem Yavuz, Durgadas Menon,
  Constantin Grywatz, Kathrin Wolf, Half-Time for SDG Evidence Generation, 2023.
  3ie Working paper xx. New Delhi: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).