Assessing the effectiveness of development projects and policies

The Impact Evaluation Microdata Catalog provides access to data and metadata underlying impact evaluations conducted by the World Bank or other agencies.

In 2005, the World Bank's Chief Economist Office established the Development Impact Evaluation Initiative (DIME) to conduct impact evaluations of selected policy interventions in multiple countries, thematic areas and settings in order to generate knowledge about their effectiveness. These served as DIME's implementation backbone.

In 2007, the Spanish Trust Fund for Impact Evaluation (SIEF) was established to support the World Bank in evaluating the impact of innovative programs to improve human development (HD) outcomes. SIEF has assigned financing to prospective, rigorous evaluations in eligible developing countries, impact evaluation trainings, publications, and dissemination of results.

Currently working across 18 thematic areas, the World Bank collaborates on impact evaluations with 300 agencies in 72 countries.

This catalog also features impact evaluation data provided by external partners who conduct similar quantitative assessments of their operations and activities.