Here's a new book for aid practitioners and policy makers  – the pdf version is available for free download. Impact Evaluation in Practice is by Paul Gertler, an affiliate of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, J-PAL, and co-authors Sebastian Martinez, Patrick Premand, Laura Rawlings and Christel Vermeersch.

It's published by the World Bank, and “presents a non-technical overview of how to design and use impact evaluation to build more effective programs to alleviate poverty and improve people’s lives. The goal is to further the ability of policymakers and practitioners to use impact evaluations to help make policy decisions based on evidence of what works the most effectively.”

The book comes with training videos and power points. Sounds a terrific resource for people in the aid business. Effectiveness is a key aid issue – see Owen Barder's recent blog post on this point. As he says: “Most people don’t need to be convinced that development is
desirable; they need to be convinced that aid works.”