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GIGA Event
Evidence That Matters: Evidence-based Development Cooperation in Strategy and Practice
Date
20/11/2025
Start
08:30 a.m. (CET)
End
03:45 p.m. (CET)
German development cooperation has a unique opportunity to make every euro count – even in the face of today’s global challenges and limited public resources. By grounding decisions on solid scientific evidence, we can consistently maximize effectiveness (“do the right things”) and efficiency (“do things right”). An impact-oriented mindset goes beyond counting participants or tracking their progress. It asks: How would people’s lives differ without this intervention? How might alternative designs perform? Counterfactual thinking and scenario analysis help us uncover those insights.
Rigorous impact evaluations create these “what-if” or “no-action” scenarios needed to assess what would happen without an intervention. Together with cost-benefit considerations they can guide scarce resources to the initiatives that deliver the greatest, most sustainable benefits. Together with other forms of scientific evidence, this evidence-based approach informs the setting of political priorities and their implementation by shedding light on potential trade-offs, enabling smarter, more transparent decision-making. Germany already employs valuable evidence-based practices. The next step is to integrate these into a fully systematic, coherent strategy to unlock even greater impact for sustainable development, and to contribute to the reform of German development policy at the nexus of economic development, security, health and environmental challenges, and global partnerships.
Objectives and Format of the Learning Forum
Against this backdrop, GIGA, RWI, DEval, and the evaluation department of KfW invite to a one-day Learning Forum on the use of evidence in German development cooperation. The forum aims to firmly establish evidence-based approaches on the agenda of political decision-makers and to strengthen the dialogue between research and practice. Using concrete examples and current development policy challenges, the event will demonstrate how evidence can be systematically applied to inform and improve decision-making processes.
The day will begin with short impulses from academia and practitioners on the systematic use of evidence and the role of rigorous impact evaluations in German development cooperation. This will be followed by thematic workshops in which policymakers, practitioners, and researchers will exchange ideas based on concrete examples of evidence use in specific sectors including contributions from both research and practice.
The day will conclude with a panel discussion about how evidence can be applied more systematically and effectively in the design and implementation of development cooperation using tangible cases and sectoral examples.
Detailed Programme
08:30 – 09:00 | Registration |
09:00 – 09:30 | Opening Remarks Jörg Faust (DEval), Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln (WZB), BMZ [tbc] Event moderation: Angelika König (DEval) [tbc] |
09:30 – 09:45 | Setting the Scene: Short Impulses from Science and Practice Impulses from science: Jann Lay (GIGA), practice: Jochen Kluve (KfW) |
10:00 – 10:45 | Parallel Workshops I Topic 1: Job Creation and Decent Work Lessons learned from rigorous impact evaluations (RIEs) in the Special Initiative “Decent Work for a Just Transition” Bernd Beber (RWI), Katharina Fietz (GIGA) and Peter Anti Partey (University of Cape Coast) – Presentation of key findings (15 min) Sarah Stadler (BMZ) [tbc], NN – Reflections from practice & outlook (15 min) Discussion (15 min) Chair: [tbc] Topic 2: Climate Change and Biodiversity Lessons learned from the RIE “Ecological and Socioeconomic Effects of the Forest Restoration Program PLAE in Madagascar” Krisztina Kis-Katos (University of Göttingen) – Presentation of key findings (15 min) Sebastian Prediger (KfW), Jorge Espinoza (GIZ, tbc) – Reflections from practice & outlook (15 min) Discussion (15 min) Chair: [tbc] |
10:45 – 11:30 | Coffee Break with Poster Presentations |
11:30 – 12:15 | Parallel Workshops II Topic 3: Digital Education Lessons learned from the RIE “Evaluation of a Digital Skills Program for TVET Teachers in Rwanda” Rajshri Jayaraman (ESMT) – Presentation of key findings (15 min) Katia Halabi (GIZ Rwanda), NN – Reflections from practice & outlook (15 min) Discussion (15 min) Chair: [tbc] Topic 4: Resilience and Insurance Lessons learned on willingness-to-pay for weather insurance and from the RIE “Trigger-based Agricultural Micro Insurance in Vietnam (InsureVietnam)” Kati Krähnert (RWI) – Presentation of key findings (15 min) [tbc], NN – Reflections from practice & outlook (15 min) Discussion (15 min) Chair: [tbc] |
12:15 – 13:15 | Lunch Break (posters still on) |
13:15 – 14:00 | Parallel Workshops III |
| Topic 5: Peace and Social Cohesion Lessons learned from RIEs to promote social cohesion in Lebanon Macartan Humphreys (WZB), Alex Scacco (WZB) – Presentation of key findings (15 min) Lara Azzam (Berghof Foundation, Lebanon), NN – Reflections from practice & outlook (15 min) Discussion (15 min) Chair: [tbc] |
| Topic 6: Migration Lessons learned from RIEs to address the root causes of migration through development cooperation Bernd Beber (RWI) – Presentation of key findings (15 min) Marina Manke (IOM), Benjamin Wösten (GIZ) – Reflections from practice & outlook (15 min) Discussion (15 min) Chair: [tbc] |
14:00 – 14:30 | Coffee Break with Poster Presentations |
14:30 – 15:30 | Panel Discussion: Systematic Use of Evidence in Development Policy Panelists will discuss concrete examples of evidence use and reflect on the following guiding questions: What are examples of how scientific evidence has informed development policy and practice? What role do different forms of evidence play, in particular rigorous impact evaluations? How is German development policy positioned? What progress has been made, and how can findings on effectiveness and efficiency be applied more systematically across different decision-making levels? Panelists: Maxie Sievert (RWI) Jann Lay (GIGA) Jochen Kluve (KfW) Nora Röhner (BMZ) [tbc] Moderator: Angelika König (DEval) |
15:30 – 15:45 | Concluding Remarks Martin Bruder (DEval) |
Address
WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin
Language
English
By invitation
