Video: Cost-ober 2020 Webinar Series Part III: Policymaker Demand for Cost Evidence

Understanding the costs of a program or policy–in addition to its impacts–is critical to making informed decisions about how limited development resources are spent. Yet the supply of cost evidence in international development is low, of inferior quality, and lacking in transparency. In October and November 2020, CEGA’s Cost Transparency Initiative (CTI) and associated Costing Community of Practice (CCoP) will host its inaugural “Cost-ober” webinar series including virtual panel discussions with front-line policymakers, donors, journal editors, researchers, and practitioners regarding the role of cost evidence in boosting the policy relevance of impact evaluation research.

This panel asked frontline policymakers serving in government ministries (or in adjacent institutions) to provide perspective on how and when they use evidence of program costs and cost-effectiveness for decision-making.

Moderator: Craig McIntosh, Professor; Co-director, Policy Design and Evaluation Lab, University of California San Diego

Panelists:

• Gonzalo Hernández Licona, Director of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN)
• Samson Ondiek, Business Planning Manager, Kenya Power and Lighting Company
• Barri Shorey, Senior Technical Director Economic Recovery & Development Technical Unit at International Rescue Committee (IRC)
• Damit Serge Didier Amany, Director, Project Development Result Evaluation Directorate at West African Development Bank