Strengthening the Evidence Base for the Smart Buys Alliance

Policy Context

Despite decades of research on the impacts of global development programs, bilateral donors and governments often do not have a clear menu of proven solutions for development challenges—such as structured pedagogy and immunization programs—that offer exceptional impact and value.

CEGA, together with Center for Global Development (CGD), Cooperacion Globale, the Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL), and J-PAL, serve as co-hosts of the newly-formed Smart Buys Alliance. Together, we are leading research on comprehensive, authoritative Smart Buys lists as a public good. Smart Buys Lists present an organized framework for comparing the available evidence on the costs and benefits of important and/or relevant development interventions. Each Smart Buy list will be co-funded by a bilateral donor or government agency to ensure it is relevant to the needs of policymakers and their constituents. 

While we know more and more about what works in development, we often don’t know what it costs to deliver impact. Currently, only 20% of impact evaluations report cost data, and the quality is often too low for side-by-side comparison. CEGA, together with GPRL and J-PAL, lead the Alliance’s technical work on cost-effectiveness, ensuring that Smart Buys are backed by credible, standardized estimates of cost. Over the next 18 months, CEGA will build the foundational cost data infrastructure required to make these lists authoritative and actionable.

Study Design

CEGA is leading four core work-streams to support the Alliance’s mission:

• Infrastructure development: CEGA will build standardized templates and a data extraction protocol for the DEVIDENCE library to harmonize cost data across disparate studies.
• Predictive cost modeling: CEGA will contribute tools to predict a total cost per participant at the program level, even in cases where the cost data are sparsely reported. 
• Complete data sets: CEGA will create a complete, standardized cost data set for studies included in the inaugural Smart Buys List.
• Capacity building: CEGA will create guidance and training modules to help bilateral agencies and donors to (1) enact smart buys (i.e. how to write RFPs, request cost information, reporting templates, etc.); (2) better interpret and use the CEA evidence presented in Smart Buys; and (3) generate cost evidence for future projects (i.e. use of evidence from implementation partners and funded entities).

Results and Policy Lessons

Results forthcoming.