Evaluating Outside the Box: Mixing Methods in Analysing Social Protection Programmes

This CDI Practice Paper by Keetie Roelen and Stephen Devereux reflects on the methodological implications of operationalising an expanded framework for evaluating social protection programmes. It builds on an IDS Working Paper (Devereux et al. 2013) that critiques mainstream approaches to impact evaluations and proposes an alternative framework that (1) assesses a broader range of impacts, and (2) uses a broader range of methods in a more holistic way. This paper specifically discusses the combination and integration of methods as part of the expanded evaluation framework, and does so by using an ongoing evaluation of a cash transfer pilot programme in Tigray, Ethiopia as a case study.