About Us

Who We Are

Globally, evaluations have been recognised as the cornerstone of good governance. Increasingly, governments worldwide are shifting their focus and are guided by the principle, ‘what matters is what works’. The craving and pursuit of evidence regarding what works are being met through a substantial increase in the demand for research and evaluations within government departments, along with a greater emphasis on pilot projects to test new approaches. Over the past decade, an evidence-informed policy revolution has swept through academic institutions, think tanks, and governments. For example, the government of Ghana established a Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation tasked with enhancing the impact and efficiency of public sector programs. However, there still exists a lack of integration of rigorous impact evaluation techniques in assessing government programs. Additionally, local academic curricula lack training in these methods, and there is also a shortage of experts in impact evaluations.

Development Impact West Africa (DIWA) was established in 2019 as an initiative aimed at supporting West African governments in using credible and transparent evidence to inform policy decisions. DIWA is hosted by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in partnership with the Centre for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and funded by the Hewlett Foundation. The project aims to incorporate tools and methods for rigorous and transparent impact evaluation into academic curricula at Institutions of Higher Education, stimulate demand for rigorous evidence as a tool for improved policymaking and program design, and facilitate new collaborative research opportunities between West African researchers, CEGA researchers, and policymakers.

Key Project Activities

Impact Evaluation Training

Matchmaking Workshops

Collaborative Research Funding

Visiting Fellowships

Research Convening and Dissemination

Development of Evaluation Tools and Frameworks

Key Sectors

Ministry of Education

Ministry of Energy

Ministry of Health

Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection

Relevant Government Institutions

Mission

DIWA exists to support and deepen rigorous, transparent and credible evidence-informed policy decisions in the West African Sub-region through leveraging the expertise of academics, researchers and evaluators.

Vision

To contribute effectively to the development agenda of governments in the sub-region by promoting the mainstreaming and steady use of credible scientific evidence in the policymaking processes across diverse development sectors.

Goal

The goal of the project is to enhance the receptivity of government policies in West African countries to rigorous evidence and strengthen the supply of locally-generated knowledge identified by the government’s need for policy decision making.

DIWA has trained researchers from academic institutions in Ghana and other West African countries. These institutions include: the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, the University of Ghana, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Cape Coast, Ashesi University, and the Dombo University of Business and Integrated Studies, all located in Ghana.

Other institutions include the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and the African School of Economics in Benin. Non-academic institutions include the Center for Democratic Development, the ECOWAS Commission, and the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI).

Participating ministries comprise the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Environment, Science, and Technology, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Energy, and the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection.