1. CEDIL funding for projects within its Programmes of Work
Craig Bardsley, Charlotte Cornforth, and Marcella Vigneri
19 and 27 March 2019

2. Webinar outline Introduction to CEDIL and its purpose
Overview of CEDIL programmes of work
Overview of commissioning process
Other priorities
Expectations of projects
Timetable
Q&A

3. What is CEDIL?
The Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning
A multidisciplinary consortium funded by DFID, to identify, develop and test innovative approaches to assessing development effectiveness
Composed of:
Research directorate
Programme directorate
Intellectual leadership team (ILT) of impact evaluation experts

4. The challenges of impact evaluation and CEDIL’s response

5. Huge rise in development IEs since early 2000s
Source: Shayda Mae Sabet & Annette N. Brown (2018) Is impact evaluation still on the rise?
The new trends in 2010–2015, Journal of Development Effectiveness, 10:3, 

6. But…
Motivation for CEDIL is DFID dissatisfaction ‘unsatisfactory evaluations’
Issue CEDIL RFP:
‘The objective is to establish a high quality, inter-disciplinary academic centre to innovate in the field of impact evaluation; design, commission and implement impact evaluations; and promote the uptake and use of evidence from impact evaluations. The purpose of CEDIL is to drive forward the field of impact evaluation and development evaluation both theoretically and in practice. CEDIL will act as an international focal point and develop and demonstrate new and innovative methodologies for impact evaluation and evidence accumulation.’

7. Examples given by DFID Packages of interventions
Humanitarian and FCAS contexts
Budget support
TA and institutional development

8. Our response identifies four gaps
Evidence gaps for IEs: geographic and thematic
Methods gaps for IEs: evaluation questions that cannot be answered by current large n statistical methods
Evidence synthesis gaps in evidence and methods
Policy uptake gap

9. Programmes of work Overview
CEDIL has identified 3 key areas for evaluation and synthesis
£9.5m funding available over 3 years
Funds will be awarded to research teams through a competitive commissioning process
CEDIL directorate and ILT to provide technical support and quality assurance

10. Programmes of work CEDIL work organised around 3 research themes:
Complex interventions
Mid-level theories
Promoting evidence use
Selected through:
4 pre-inception papers, 12 inception papers
2 CEDIL conferences, 1 internal workshop and consultations

11. Project types
Evaluations: large scale evaluations of current interventions collecting primary data.
Secondary data analysis: retrospective evaluations or other research projects relevant to the programmes of work using existing data sources.
Evidence synthesis: projects which systematically draw together existing evidence and analysis.
Exploratory projects: small scale projects to develop innovative approaches.

12. Projects in the programmes of work
Funding opportunities for:
Project Type 
Maximum Budget 
Maximum Duration 
PoW 1: Complex Evaluations 
PoW 2: Middle-range theory 
PoW 3: Evidence Use 
Large Projects 
Evaluations 
£1,000,000 
3 years 
YES 
NO 
Secondary Data Analysis 
£300,000 
2 years 
Small Projects 
Evidence Synthesis 
£200,000 
18 months 
Exploratory Projects 
£100,000 
1 year 

13. Programme of work 1: Evaluating complex interventions

14. PoW 1: Evaluating complex interventions
What are complex interventions?
Interventions with multiple components and multiple outcomes.
Programmes with interacting components
Programmes with long causal chains
Portfolio interventions
Multi-country projects

15. PoW 1: Evaluating complex interventions
CEDIL approach
Open the black box
Find out how the programme operates
Find proper data and comparison groups
Assess impact of interactions
Address impact on multiple outcomes
Find ways of assessing cost-effectiveness

16. Programme of work 2: Generalising evidence by building middle-range theories

17. PoW 2: Generalising evidence through mid-level theories
Generalisability problem
How to extrapolate evidence from one place to another? How to account for differences:
Population
Implementation
Project
How to scale-up interventions?
No evaluation design or method that can achieve external validity

18. PoW 2: Generalising evidence through mid-level theories
CEDIL approach
MLT between ‘theories of change’ and all-explaining social science theories
Describe mechanisms: how things work
Provide examples of mid-level theories for difficult and under-researched interventions
Evaluation questions and evaluation designs to be derived from mid-level theories

19. Programme of work 3: Promoting evidence use

20. PoW 3: Promoting evidence use
Are impact evaluations used?
Ideally evaluations should be reviewed, and summarised, and the recommendations adopted by policy-makers
In reality
Evidence may not exist or being multiple and conflicting
Evidence may not be relevant, or credible or timely
Evidence is just one of many factors considered in policy

21. PoW 3: Promoting evidence use
CEDIL approach
We will promote and test models of stakeholder engagement in our own evaluations
We will produce guidelines on how to make sense of different and conflicting sources of evidence
We will test the effectiveness of different communication methods
We will contribute to build an evidence infrastructure to support evidence use

22. CEDIL commissioning Key characteristics
Competitive process based on peer review (research quality and potential for impact)
No institutional restrictions
Individuals and organisations may be involved in multiple proposals
Priority countries and themes
Southern researchers and North-South partnerships encouraged

23. Collaboration with development interventions
Two routes
Projects may be submitted by teams with established relationships with organisations implementing interventions (CEDIL does not fund the costs of interventions)
Submission of a team proposal to enter into a matchmaking process with DFID interventions (details to be published soon)

24. Want your programme to be evaluated!?
Send a brief description (max. 200 words) of your programme to

25. DFID IE priority areas… viz… DFID country programmes
Afghanistan
Malawi
Somalia
Bangladesh
Mali
South Sudan
Burma
Mozambique
Sudan
Chad
Nepal
Syria
DRC
Niger
Tanzania
Ethiopia
Nigeria
Uganda
Iraq
OTP
Yemen
Jordan
Pakistan
Zimbabwe
Kenya
Rwanda
Lebanon
Sierra Leone

26. Priority thematic areas
Accelerating use of family planning
Humanitarian assistance
Anti-corruption, including illicit financial flows
Inclusive growth
Infrastructure and building markets
Climate change and sustainable resource management
Justice
Migration and modern slavery
Conflict
Nutrition
Disability and gender
Security and stability
Economic development
Southern innovation and use of technology
Education
Extremism
Trade
Governance

27. Forms of collaboration with southern partners

28. Contribution to wider programme
Submitting a number of research outputs over the lifetime of the contract which will enable the Centre to identify and develop synergies and overlaps with other projects; 
Contributing to Centre-level efforts to enhance user engagement with CEDIL’s research; 
Participating in annual CEDIL workshops or conferences; 
Participating in Centre-managed workshops on thematic and methodological issues 

29. Timetable 14 March 2019 Call launch 11 April 2019
Deadline for registration of intention to submit on the CEDIL website 
8 May 2019 
Deadline for submission of Expressions of Interest (evaluations and secondary data analysis) 
14 May 2019 
Deadline for submission of Full proposals (evidence synthesis and exploratory projects) 
3 June 2019  
Outcomes of shortlisting for large projects announced 
15 July 2019 
Outcomes of small projects call announced 
18 July 2019 
Deadline for submission of full proposals for large projects (not involved in matchmaking process) 
1 August 2019 
Deadline for submission of full proposals (based on matchmaking) 
2 September 2019 
Latest date for small projects to start 
30 September 2019 
Decisions on funding for large projects announced 
31 January 2020 
Latest date for large projects to start 

30. Questions?

31. Thank you