Event Detail

Webinar Brief:
UNDP Bangladesh is jointly organising South Asia Regional Webinar ‘Mind the Gap: Evidence-Based Programming and Policy Dialogue for Urban Poor’ on 31st May, Monday 2021 from 1900 to 2030 hours Bangladesh time. The Webinar is being jointly organized by UNDP and the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI) as part of the gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2021 starting from 31st May – 4th June 2021. The GEI is an inclusive global partnership committed to developing country-owned, sustainable monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks and capacities to promote the use of evidence in public decision-making, enhance accountability, and achieve better results. The Webinar will present the key findings of the Impact Evaluation and the SocioEconomic Assessment of COVID 19 on urban poor commissioned by UNDP Bangladesh under its flagship project – Livelihoods Improvement for Urban Poor Communities (LIUPCP -2018-2023). LIUPCP is a five-year national project (2018-2023) to reduce urban poverty, in partnership with the Local Government Division (LGD) and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The evaluation findings clearly show how the COVID19 pandemic now in its second year has severely impacted the poorest and the most vulnerable in our societies and can therefore inform and guide the process of response and recovery.

Impact Evaluation:
The methodology uses the difference-in-differences (DiD) approaches to compare the differences in outcomes between treatment and control groups at the baseline, and at the endline. In order to conduct a scientifically valid Impact Evaluation, the design proposed one treatment group and, two control groups (a semi-control group within the treatment group who will not receive grant interventions, and another pure-control group (not receiving any interventions). LIUPCP completed the baseline survey and the first round of Annual Outcome Monitoring in 2020. In response to COVID-19 pandemic, LIUPCP carried out a Socio-Economic Assessment (SEA) to understand the short term, medium-term and long-term impact of COVID -19 on the urban poor communities. The SEA adopted a mixed-method strategy including a cross-sectional survey with a quasi-experimental approach among households (beneficiary, semi-control, and pure control). The household survey collected data on two time-points (immediate before and after lockdown of COVID-19) and composed a matched panel (in 19 Cities where baseline survey of LIUPCP is complete) at the level of both individuals and areas/urban poor settlements. The SEA data in comparison to the baseline data interestingly reveals the extent of emergence of new poor and how the baseline data further deteriorated due to the COVID impact. The Impact Evaluation using a mixed methodology approach across various timeframes presents a good practice in terms of Equity Focused and Gender Responsive Evaluation.