Building Strong Foundations for Impact Evaluation in Education Research

From 13–17 October 2025, the Africa Fellows in Education Program (AFEP) held an Impact Evaluation Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya.

The week-long session equipped the new AFEP cohort with practical tools to design and implement rigorous, policy-relevant education research across Africa. It combined lectures, discussions, and hands-on data labs to strengthen the Fellows’ capacity to conduct high-quality causal research. Dr. Celine Wuyts and Dr. Nouréini Sayouti—research scientists at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)—facilitated the learning.

“Impact evaluation helps us move beyond describing problems to identifying what truly works,” said Dr. Wuyts during the opening session. “Developing these skills is essential for generating evidence that informs policy decisions.”

The training provided a comprehensive grounding in causal inference and impact evaluation methods, guiding participants through experimental and quasi-experimental designs, including randomized controlled trials, propensity score matching, difference-in-differences, and instrumental variables analysis. Fellows explored how to identify valid counterfactuals, test key assumptions, and address common threats to internal and external validity.

Beyond theory, the fellows engaged in hands-on sessions using, applying statistical concepts to real-world education datasets. Through group projects and practical labs, they learned to design evaluation frameworks, calculate statistical power and sample size, and interpret findings for policymaking.

The workshop culminated in a guided data analysis project, where participants presented their evaluation results and reflected on lessons learned. This experience not only built technical confidence but also reinforced AFEP’s core mission: to empower African researchers to generate and use locally grounded evidence that can shape education policy across the continent.