Day 2 | Cost-ober 2021: The Role of High-Quality Cost Evidence in Impact Evaluation Research

What can (and can’t) cost estimates from different projects tell us about the costs of future programming? This workshop explored how context and scale impact program cost estimates using real-world data and examples from the International Rescue Committee’s education portfolio. Workshop participants joined in a hands-on exercise to explore the data and generate testable hypotheses, asking, for example, whether digital delivery platforms are more cost-effective than non-digital approaches; or whether the cost efficiency of a program will increase or decrease as a program is brought to scale? This interactive session was co-organized and led by CEGA, J-PAL and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), with Caitlin Tulloch (IRC), Liz Brown (CEGA), and Radhika Bhula (J-PAL) leading the workshop.