Impact Evaluation of Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Interventions

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The international community is paying increased attention to the 25 percent of the world's population that lives in fragile and conflict affected settings, acknowledging that these settings represent daunting development challenges. To deliver better results on the ground, it is necessary to improve the understanding of the impacts and effectiveness of development interventions operating in contexts of conflict and fragility. This paper argues that it is both possible and important to carry out impact evaluations even in settings This paper is a product of the Public Sector Evaluation Department, Independent Evaluation Group. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at of violent conflict, and it presents some examples from a collection of impact evaluations of conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions. The paper examines the practices of impact evaluators in the peacebuilding sector to see how they address evaluation design, data collection, and conflict analysis. Finally, it argues that such evaluations are crucial for testing assumptions about how development interventions affect change—the so-called " theory of change " —which is important for understanding the results on the ground. Committee, [email protected]. We would like to thank a number of people for their support. Ole Winckler Andersen, Denmark's development cooperation (Danida), Beate Bull, Norwegian Agency for development cooperation (Norad) and Megan Kennedy-Chouane, DAC Network on Development Evaluation, editors of the forthcoming book Evaluation Methodologies for Aid in Conflict, have been a driving force behind this paper (an updated version of which will appear as a book chapter). Development Institute have reviewed and provided invaluable comments to draft versions of the paper. Anette Brown, Deputy Director …