Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition


Book Description

The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.




Evaluating International Projects


Book Description

Donald R. Lessard provides a thorough and detailed introduction to the Adjusted Present Value (APV) method for evaluating international projects. APV is an essential tool for assessing investment opportunities and risk in a global market, and Lessard's clear and accessible writing makes this book an invaluable resource for business leaders and investors. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.




Planning and Analyzing Foreign Direct Investment Projects


Book Description

Globalization, accelerated by information technologies, has increased the speed of business transactions and has reduced the distances between international businesses. This growth has transformed the realm of foreign investment in countries around the world, calling for a methodological approach to planning feasible capital investment proposals in general and foreign direct investment projects. Planning and Analyzing Foreign Direct Investment Projects: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal reference source that provides a systems approach to investment projects in a globalized and open society. While highlighting topics such as consumer analysis, competitive strategy, and market analysis, this publication explores the profitability and feasibility of international investments, as well as the risks and resources associated with strategic project planning. This book is ideally designed for business managers, entrepreneurs, researchers, academicians, graduate students, policymakers, investors, and project managers seeking current research on planning, analyzing, and evaluating investment projects.




Project Evaluation


Book Description

Organizations increasingly use projects to undertake major as well as smaller tasks. Projects help target and delimit activities, place the responsibility and transfer risk from the financing to the implementing party. As a result, evaluation has become popular as a tool to control, guide and draw lessons of experience from projects. This book is intended both as a textbook for students and a handbook for project managers. It provides hands-on, easy-to-comprehend lessons about evaluation as a phenomenon, its design, preparation and methodology, as well as the project as a management tool.




Project Evaluation


Book Description

The collection of papers on social project evaluation.




Introduction to Project Finance


Book Description

The term "project finance" is now being used in almost every language in every part of the world. It is the solution to infrastructure, public and private venture capital needs. It has been successfully used in the past to raise trillions of dollars of capital and promises to continue to be one of the major financing techniques for capital projects in both developed and developing countries.Project Finance aims to provide: *Overview of project finance*Understanding of the key risks involved in project finance and techniques for mitigating risk*Techniques for effective evaluation of project finance from both a financial and credit perspectiveThe author differentiates between recourse and non-recourse funding, tackles the issues of feasibility, identifies the parties normally involved with project finance plans, and details techniques for realistic cash flow preparation.*Inspired by basic entry level training courses that have been developed by major international banks worldwide*Will enable students, and those already in the finance profession, to gain an understanding of the basic information and principles of project finance*Includes questions with answers, study topics, practical 'real world' examples and an extensive bibliography




Evaluating Environment in International Development


Book Description

More than twenty years after the Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, both national and international actors in governmental and nongovernmental fields are still searching for insights into how sustainable development can be advanced and environmental concerns incorporated into the development agenda more effectively. Moreover, climate change has emerged as a preeminent challenge to both the environment and to development. Evaluating Environment in International Development provides international perspectives and in-depth knowledge of evaluating development and the environment and applies evaluation knowledge to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The book focuses on the approaches and experiences of leading international organizations, not-for-profits, and multilateral and bilateral aid agencies to illustrate how systematic evaluation is an essential tool for providing evidence for decision-makers. It provides novel and in-depth perspectives on evaluating environment and sustainability issues in developing countries. Moving beyond projects and programmes, it considers aspects such as evaluating normative work on the environment and evaluating environmental consequences of economic and social development efforts. This original collection should be of interest to scholars of environment studies, development studies, international relations, sustainable development and evaluation, as well as practitioners in international organizations and development and environmental NGOs.




The Basics of Project Evaluation and Lessons Learned


Book Description

For some organizations, Lessons Learned (LL) is an informal process of discussing and recording project experiences during the closure phase. For others, LL is a formal process that occurs at the end of each phase of a project. Regardless of when they are performed, if you are a project team member, chances are you will soon be required to present




Capital Budgeting Under Conditions of Uncertainty


Book Description

The business environment, particularly after the continuing oil crises of the seventies, can be characterized as evolving rapidly in complex and often unpre dictable ways. Such things as high interest and inflation rates, fluctuating ex change rates, volatile commodity markets, and increasing political turmoil have led to a situation in which explicit consideration of environmental dynamics is becoming much more important for successful business planning than was true in the past. Companies are finding that it is no longer possible to conduct "busi ness as usual" under these changing circumstances. Rather, decision makers are having to be more cognizant of the many sources of uncertainty that could have serious impacts on the continued prosperity of the firm, as well as of actions that can be taken so that the company can thrive in spite of these greater uncertainties. Businesses have responded to these challenges by giving more thorough con sideration to strategic issues. Whereas in the past the steady progression of mar kets and technology was taken for granted, the uncertainties associated with increased worldwide competition, as well as with other exogenous factors, have vii viii INTRODUCTION forced companies to think more about flexibility. This involves not only how best to exploit profitable current options, but also how to position themselves at present to be able to respond appropriately to threats and opportunities as they arise in the future. Unfortunately, in this redirection of outlook, the fmance profession has not kept pace.




Evaluating IT Projects


Book Description

Project management disciplines have been a part of IT for many years. Why then, are so many challenges still directly associated with how a project is managed? Many projects fail for a myriad of reasons; most, however, stem from poor or inadequate project evaluation and performance appraisal, while, improved project planning and direction is considered to be one of the key factors to IT project success. Eriona Shtembari arranges evaluation methods and techniques into three groups, managerial-financial-and-development. This book explores the process of project evaluation and the purposes of evaluation, given its strong relationship to the success of the project. It examines IT project evaluation; identifies methods and techniques to be used throughout the project life cycle; examines the benefits of project evaluation and proposes a systematic approach/framework of project evaluation to serve as a tool for successful project management. Shtembari analyses the most up-to-date research relating to the process and methods/techniques of project evaluation, throughout the project life cycle. From the systematic literature review, she identifies the most usable methods and techniques in project evaluation and focuses on the adequacy of these methods and techniques in the service sector. The theoretical underpinning of the book, serves as a base to interpret the interviews in the case study and build a theory as to how the project evaluation context relates to the proposed scientific theory. The findings in this book provide solutions for practitioners to help them boost the evaluation framework and consequently improve their IT project management.