In the past few years, aid effectiveness discussions have reached a new level of intensity. Top scholars in the development field have offered viewpoints across the spectrum, some heralding the potential of aid to help the world’s poorest and others disparaging aid as an inefficient waste. A crucial limitation in this debate has been the dearth of information on the effectiveness of aid-financed programs, caused by inherent measurement difficulties and poor evaluation practices. However, change could be on the horizon. In conjunction with key donors, the Center for Global Development (CGD) has developed the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3IE), a major effort to revolutionize practice in evaluation of the impact of programs intended to improve social outcomes. Can 3IE show how to make aid work? To address this question, we are delighted to welcome Ruth Levine, Center for Global Development Vice President and a key players behind 3IE.

This discussion will take place from 6:30-8:00 pm on Thursday, March 27th. To attend, please register by responding to events@ypfp.org with your name and affiliation.

Ruth Levine

Ruth Levine is an internationally recognized expert on global health and health policy. She is a health economist with more than 15 years of experience designing and assessing the effects of social sector programs in Latin America, Eastern Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. As the Center for Global Development (CGD)’s vice president for programs and operations, she is a member of the Center’s senior management team. She is also a CGD senior fellow and leads the Center’s work on global health policy, including chairing a series of working groups on key policy and finance constraints to the effective use of donor funding for health programs in low-income countries. Before joining the CGD, Ruth designed, supervised, and evaluated loans at the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Between 1997 and 1999, she served as the advisor on the social sectors in the office of the executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank. Ruth has a doctoral degree in economic demography from Johns Hopkins University, and is the co-author of the books: The Health of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (World Bank, 2001) and Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health (CGD, 2004, updated as Cases in Global Health: Millions Saved (Jones and Bartlett, 2007)), as well as the major reports Making Markets for Vaccines: Ideas to Action (CGD, 2005), When Will We Ever Learn: Improving Lives through Impact Evaluation (CGD, 2006) and A Risky Business: Saving Money and Improving Global Health through Better Demand Forecasting (CGD, 2007).