Understanding What Works: Impact Evaluation for Conservation, Climate and Development

Countries: Global

Partners: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Summary: Understanding the current state of knowledge on the effectiveness of interventions is the key first step in identifying critical evidence gaps which should be prioritised to support future conservation policy, decision-making and financial investment. Investing in impact evaluation aims to systematically identify, review and summarise existing evidence on what works for conservation, climate and development interventions, and to define a clear approach to address identified priority evidence gaps.

Activities

The project has focused on 2 main activities:

• Updating an existing Evidence Gap Map (EGM) on Land Use Change and Forestry interventions. An EGM identifies and describes the evidence base measuring the effectiveness of programmes against different outcomes.
• Producing a framework from which an EGM can be created for Climate Change and Biodiversity. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of international frameworks to address the climate change and biodiversity crises that underpin the GCBC. Developing an evidence base on effective interventions to address these crises is critical, and 3ie have looked to develop an EGM framework that will act as the starting point for strategic and coordinated evidence generation and synthesis activities.