Often, as economists, we tend to rely our work too much on numbers and less of words, thinking that only RCT and what we call “hard data” can tell us the full picture. What is more, that data that we analyze, has been often collected thousands of miles from our desk, using standard surveys with pre-populated answers.
Here, at IMAGO, we believe relying on only a few methods of evaluation might lead to oversimplification of the vast problems we can find in the field of development, and therefore it can lead us to design simple solutions for complex issues. What is our approach?
We evaluate using mixed methods of evaluation. This is, after a thorough literature review and building a solid Theory of change, we start our research asking open-ended questions. At the beginning, we don’t want to eliminate any hypotheses (which can happen when we start close-ended questionnaires). From there, we could start adjusting our theory of change, continue refining our hypotheses, and complementing our research with more data (and yes, numbers as well!).
Using this method, we ensure to understand the narrative of the issue. Even when interventions don’t work, we focus on the why, rather than the outcome, because only by learning the channels we will be able to build and help other building complex sustainable solutions to complex issues.