Diamond Teaches How to Use Impact Evaluation Tools to Make Better Policy Recommendations and Decisions

CEU School of Public Policy Visiting Professor Alexis Diamond teaches students to leverage impact evaluation for decisionmaking and project management in his Advanced Impact Evaluation course. "We're giving students the technical and strategic skills they'll need to shape policy," Diamond explained.

To complement the computational approaches to evaluation studied in the course, Diamond brings project managers from Budapest-based NGOs and government agencies into the classroom to present real-world applications of impact evaluation. "For me, this class has been a great opportunity to relate what I thought were very complex and abstract econometric models to real life situations," said Ursula Sanchez (MPA '16). "I think this class is a unique opportunity to experience the work of a consultant and to approach policy making from a professional perspective."

One guest speaker who spoke to Diamond's class was Anna Adamecz, Senior Researcher at the Budapest Institute that was established in 2008 to support policymaking, monitoring, and evaluation in Hungary.

Another speaker was Zsofia Farkas, Managing Director of the Minority Rights Group International Europe, Eastern Partnership and Central Asia Regional Office. Farkas challenged students to think critically as they evaluated the impact of an online course for journalists run by the Minority Rights Group. Through this exercise, students had the chance to apply skills they had learned on a real-world example. "I worked on many projects before that were intended to have an impact on people's lives," Ann-Kathrin Beck (Mundus MAPP '17) said, "but most of the time we didn't really know if this was actually the case. I'm delighted to learn ways to evaluate the impact of projects, a skill that will be useful no matter which field I go into after graduation."

During another class session, Anna Horvath, country director of NESsT, spoke about HelloMum!, an innovative project to support and engage young mothers assisting them to reintegrate into the economy.

The final guest speaker was Kristof Varga who presented Diamond's students with a particularly interesting problem: imagine you are in charge of a project in Indonesia to help build local government capacity so that it can more effectively manage revenues that it receives from the central government. Varga explained that these revenues resulted from new oil finds in East Java. "There are certain things that characterize these types of revenues that pose particular challenges," Varga said. "These revenues will increase dramatically and very quickly, they will fluctuate, and they will last for only a limited period of time." Students were asked to identify the "right questions to ask" and what to measure in order to determine whether the money has been well spent.

"This is one of my most favorite courses because it provides practical technical skills that are in high demand, no matter which sector you will work in," commented Giang Vu (MPA '16). "I like the interactive environment where everyone, including the professor, the TA, and every student, is willing to help each other make progress. Needless to say, it's a great course for anyone interested in quantitative methods."