DFID 7948 Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning - Programme Directorate

Tender description

The Department for International Development (DFID) is seeking to appoint a Programme Directorate to manage and implement the vision and evaluation research agenda of a multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence for Development, Impact and Learning (CEDIL) in international development. CEDIL is being tendered in two stages. In this second tender, DFID is seeking to appoint a Programme Directorate to manage and implement the vision and evaluation research agenda of CEDIL. This is a unique opportunity to manage and ensure the delivery of a large, high profile, international centre that will develop impact evaluation research capacity within the UK and internationally. The objective is to establish a high quality, inter-disciplinary academic centre to innovate in the field of impact evaluation ; design, commission and implement impact evaluations; and promote the uptake and use of evidence from impact evaluations. This should be delivered through a consortium consisting of the Research Director and Intellectual Leadership Team who have already been appointed through a separate tender and the Programme Directorate. The purpose of CEDIL is to drive forward the field of impact evaluation and development evaluation both theoretically and in practice. CEDIL will act as an international focal point and develop and demonstrate new and innovative methodologies for impact evaluation and evidence accumulation. The strategic direction of CEDIL will be guided by the Research Director and Intellectual leadership Team , with inputs and support from the Programme Directorate. CEDIL will promote and carry out innovative and rigorous impact evaluations to identify 'what works, for whom, in what contexts, how and when' in international development, as well as contribute to the advancement of emergent, pioneering and cutting edge methodologies for impact evaluation, in order to maximise the effectiveness of spending on international development by: • Strategically delivering high quality, systematic and rigorous evaluation of complex international development interventions, including some of DFID's interventions; • Adapting existing methodologies and pioneering new evaluation approaches and designs that draw on social, natural, biomedical science and other disciplines to advance DFID's understanding of 'what works, for whom, in what contexts, how and when' in international development; • Developing capacity in DFID, evaluation suppliers and the evaluation community more broadly so that DFID can commission robust evaluations which use the approaches and designs that have been adapted and developed, and the market has the skills to apply them; • Systematically and rigorously accumulating, modelling and analysing bodies of evidence in a manner that improves the external validity of findings and identifies where further investigation is most needed