The DIME Newsletter provides updates on new research findings, current and upcoming events, public goods, publications, job openings, trainings, and other relevant news.  Bridging the gap for at-risk youth in Brazil Brazil placed third in a global ranking of countries coping with labor shortages. There are over 48,000 open vacancies in the technology sector alone in Brazil but not enough professionals, a gap that translates to a potential $28 billion loss to local companies. The contradiction is that Brazil’s enormous labor shortages go hand-in-hand with the lack of job opportunities for young Brazilians. This project aims to show that enabling youth to acquire skills that are in high demand can transform their aspirations and provide them with access to high-paying jobs, while mobilizing the private sector to support solutions to their fast- growing demand for skilled labor. We are testing the approach among the most vulnerable youths in one of the most violent areas in the city of Rio de Janeiro.  This is where, helped by many like-minded partners from both private and public sector, we are establishing a blockchain programming academy. You can support the academy The Programe o Seu Futuro (Program Your Future), a through our crowdfunding campaign. Contributions in any amount are greatly appreciated joint initiative between private and public sector and will go directly to support the academy and expand the number of youth that can partners, was launched in Rio de Janeiro on April 30. attend.   Arianna Legovini (DIME) poses with youth at the launch event.   Field Coordinator Training – June 2019 If you are an impact evaluation practitioner looking to improve your skills and knowledge to oversee impact evaluations in the field, the DIME Manage Successful Impact Evaluations course is for you. This annual training books up quickly, so if you are interested in attending, please complete the expression of interest form as soon as possible. The course will be held from June 10 – 14, 2019 in Washington, DC (with Webex options available).   Participants will learn to: Plan for and supervise high-quality surveys Design and program electronic survey instruments Develop a data quality assurance strategy Monitor survey data and provide real-time feedback to field teams Integrate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems with impact evaluation http://m.newsletterext.worldbank.org/...ijs4lzkS-r4UMx6ElWBprRsO1PhZZVbn0_kCmvpsXJ9-GIP.html?deliveryName=FCP_1_DM27171[7/16/2019 5:45:54 PM] Manage complex survey data and produce descriptive analysis for policy makers Understand how impact evaluation fits in World Bank operations Effectively communicate impact evaluation results to policy makers Use geospatial data for impact evaluations The expression of interest form for in-person external (non-World Bank) participation is here. Contact dimeanalytics@worldbank.org with any questions.   Event recap: DIME/CEGA Annual Conference - Measuring Development Franck Bosquet, the Senior Director of the World Bank’s Fragility, Conflict, and Violence group, left participants of the DIME/CEGA fifth Annual Conference on Measuring Development with some homework: (1) continue to help identify risks factors and (2) create a more granular measure of the impact of mitigation initiatives. This is a difficult but not impossible task. Presenters offered solutions to some of the challenges associated with traditional data collection in fragile and conflict-affected contexts with a focus on using technology, such as cell phone surveys, other Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools, and geospatial data to access hard-to-reach populations. For example: The UNCHR and WB Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement is building a comprehensive refugee response framework for collection, analysis, and dissemination of primary micro data. The panel on predicting fragility showcased uses of artificial intelligence (AI) to measure risk — the World Banks’ Famine Action Mechanism uses AI to identify early fragility and avoid crisis escalation. The World Bank’s Geo-Enabling initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS) project provides local capacity building on the use of geo-enabled (ICT) tools for monitoring and evaluation of difficult-to-reach projects. Franck Bosquet addresses conference GOSTnets is an open source, rapid accessibility assessment Python library that participants. helps make calculation of travel times across any network more user friendly. A   project measuring access to healthcare in Yemen developed and used the tool, but it   is now available in an open source format. Opportunities to build upon these projects exist, and the conference provided a valuable forum to connect operations staff, researchers and technology providers to foster new collaborations and advance the knowledge base on fragility, conflict, and violence. We will share materials in the coming weeks, so check back.  http://m.newsletterext.worldbank.org/...ijs4lzkS-r4UMx6ElWBprRsO1PhZZVbn0_kCmvpsXJ9-GIP.html?deliveryName=FCP_1_DM27171[7/16/2019 5:45:54 PM] Blogs Spatial Jumps: Using spatial regression discontinuity to evaluate infrastructure development  Florence Kondylis discusses spatial jumps, one creative solution economists use to estimate the causal impact of infrastructure projects. Spatial discontinuity or spatial regression discontinuity (SRD) resembles regression discontinuity design (RDD) in that both methods estimate the effect of a policy with a sharp eligibility threshold by comparing individuals who are just barely eligible for a policy to individuals who are just barely ineligible. There are, however, critical differences between these two methods. Check out the blog to learn what these differences are and stay tuned for more insight from DIME economists on frontier research methods.   Think local, act local: Working with civil society for better development outcomes in Burkina Faso DIME recently launched an impact evaluation in Burkina Faso to test an alternative approach to the traditional community-driven development (CDD) model, examining whether it is possible to maintain the core element of CDD – leveraging local capacity – while avoiding the potential pitfalls (elite capture, excessive demands on citizens, high cost, and limited sustainability). We are testing a simple idea: identify high-functioning community- based organizations (CBOs) and offer them the possibility of a cash payment depending on year-to-year changes in their municipal government performance score (as reflected by SUPERMUN, an independently administered system that measures local service Burkinabe CBOs, such as this one, have in- delivery). Pilot CBOs came up with ingenious ways to improve municipal performance, but a depth local knowledge which can be key in nationwide RCT will provide evidence on whether this works at scale.   solving key development challenges.   Incentivizing civil servants to gather evidence before making decisions significantly reduced errors in the beliefs of Ethiopian government officials Poor information and bias feature in many decision-making settings, but inaccurate beliefs in the public sector can have society-wide effects, through policy decisions. New work featured in VoxDev highlights Bureaucracy Lab research exploring the ways that public officials make decisions through identifying public officials’ main information sources, how well they know their local environment, and why some public officials know more than others. The bottom line emerging from the experimental and descriptive evidence is that organizational incentives determine how much public officials invest in learning about the constituents they serve. When public officials are given authority over decision-making and when they work in an organization that rewards information gathering, they invest more in learning about their local environment. Data collaboration case study: using real-time Waze data for IE As they began a research program to study how to improve road safety in Kenya, DIME researchers faced a problem: how could they obtain reliable data on crashes in order to http://m.newsletterext.worldbank.org/...ijs4lzkS-r4UMx6ElWBprRsO1PhZZVbn0_kCmvpsXJ9-GIP.html?deliveryName=FCP_1_DM27171[7/16/2019 5:45:54 PM] better inform public infrastructure development? Their solution was to explore new sources of data including a partnership with Waze for access to real-time data which allowed them to identify patterns of traffic incidents and congestion. The data collaboration also included Twitter crash reports, police reports, and environmental data from AccuWeather and Code for Africa. Read the case study to learn more about our experience leveraging a data partnership to better inform road safety interventions in Nairobi.  Research Ethiopia: Hawassa Industrial Park Community Impact Evaluation  Iraq: Impact Evaluation of the Iraq Transport Corridors Rwanda: Impact Evaluation: Lake Victoria Transport Corridor Project  DIME Analytics Brief Other recent Briefs can be found here.  Events Upcoming events: R for Advanced Stata Users Manage Successful Impact Evaluations To see our past events, please click here. Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) is part of the Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) at the World Bank. Supported by a multi-donor trust fund, Impact Evaluation to Impact (i2i), DIME generates cutting-edge knowledge through the design and implementation of impact evaluations to help improve development policy, reduce extreme poverty and secure shared prosperity. DIME focuses on eight areas: Governance; Fragility, Conflict and Violence; Finance and Private Sector Development; Transport; Agriculture; Gender; Edutainment, and Climate Change. All impact evaluations supported by DIME build on both ongoing and completed work to create virtuous cycles of learning and policy impact in close partnership with operational and government counterparts. Check out our Annual Report and our DIME Brochure. To learn more about DIME, please visit our website: http://www.worldbank.org/en/research/dime    Uunsubscribe from this list | Update subscription preferences | Privacy Policy http://m.newsletterext.worldbank.org/...ijs4lzkS-r4UMx6ElWBprRsO1PhZZVbn0_kCmvpsXJ9-GIP.html?deliveryName=FCP_1_DM27171[7/16/2019 5:45:54 PM]