Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning
CEDIL was funded with UK aid from the UK government. CEDIL develops and tests innovative approaches to impact evaluation and evidence synthesis in low-income countries
Centre for Excellence and Development Impact and Learning
The Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning (CEDIL) was established in 2017 through funding from UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
Develop and test innovative methods for evaluation and evidence synthesis in international development contexts
Build the evidence base on research uptake and use in decision-making
Approach
To deliver these goals, CEDIL is commissioning a £10 million research portfolio of primary evaluations, secondary data analysis, evidence synthesis and exploratory projects. Additionally, the Centre’s Directorate will undertake evidence synthesis and outreach activities to maximise learning from its research and ensure uptake.
Evaluating Complex Interventions
The Centre seeks to strengthen methods to evaluate complex, multi-component interventions and improve theoretical understanding of causal chains that explain how and why combinations of activities work.
Enhancing Evidence Transferability
The Centre will develop and test middle-range theories to explain how programmes work in a plurality of contexts and how interventions can be designed and adapted to novel contexts.
Increasing Evidence Use
The Centre aims to rigorously assess three areas of research uptake stakeholder engagement, making sense of evidence and communication methods and will develop guidelines for policymakers on using evidence from multiple sources.
Timely evaluation in international development
A central issue in impact evaluation is supporting quick data collection and analyses while an intervention is being rolled out to assist urgent decision-making or update knowledge of what works. This paper reviews approaches to timely evaluation that balance speed with rigour of analysis and are often combined with more standard evaluation methods. We review approaches to timely evaluation from different traditions and combine them in a conceptual framework that describes their goals, speed, and how they address complexity. Each method is paired with a case study to illustrate its value for international development evaluation research.
Latest Webinars
Exploring the transferability of mid-range theories through recontextualising an evidence portal
Evaluating complex interventions in international development
Crossing the social barrier: participatory theatre as means to overcome gender based violence
CEDIL Consortium Members
