Internship at JICA Headquarters (Ayumu YAGI)

From February 4th to March 31st 2022, I conducted an internship at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Headquarters. During the internship, I was assigned to the Impact Evaluation Task Force of the Evaluation Department, and engaged in two activities, 1) to provide summaries of academic literature using impact evaluation, and 2) to participate in the Study Group organized by the Evaluation Department.

The Evaluation Department conducts activities related to ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of projects. In addition to the assessment and the monitoring, they also collect case studies of evaluations conducted by other international organizations and development aid agencies. In recent years, in response to the growing importance of evidence-based policy making, they have also been focusing on measuring outcomes by using impact evaluation. The Evaluation Department formed the Impact Evaluation Task Force several years ago, and has been making efforts to collect information and utilize it in project assessment.

Based on this context, the first activity was the preparation of summaries of academic literature using impact evaluation. The papers were published in prestigious economic journals and covered various fields, such as education, health, finance, and infrastructure. I wrote 2-3 page summaries of articles examining the effects of policies or projects in developing countries. For me, even just summarizing one article took time because of the difficulty in understanding the design of impact evaluation and the interpretation of the validity of causal effects. I learned a lot about theoretical knowledge and how to organize the articles as a published paper.

The second activity was to participate in the Study Group. The Evaluation Department usually arranges study sessions to discuss the importance of evaluation, to share evaluation methods and case studies, and to share knowledge on impact evaluation. By participating in these sessions and asking questions, I was able to deepen my understanding of the work of the Evaluation Department.

As the next step, I believe that it is important to develop the acquired knowledge into analytical skills. Therefore, I asked for advice from JICA staff members. In particular, Dr. Naoki Umemiya from the Human Development Department was very supportive and connected me with an expert in the field of education and impact evaluation. I realized once again that one of the major advantages of the internship is the opportunity to talk with staff who are working in the field.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the Evaluation Department, for accepting me as an internship at JICA Headquarters and providing me valuable advice. I would also like to convey my appreciation to Professor Keiichi Ogawa for his continuous and kind support during my internship. Furthermore, I would like to thank Dr. Naoki Umemiya for supporting me despite the fact that he is from a different department. 

Authored by Ayumu Yagi (Doctor student)