Cross-country analysis for a continental impact evaluation

A major international foundation was evaluating the impact of its programmes across more than twenty African countries. The data existed, but it existed country by country, in shapes that did not line up. Compared directly, it would have produced misleading conclusions.

The evaluation needed analysis that could hold twenty-plus countries to a common standard, produce benchmarks that were genuinely comparable, and give funders a defensible basis for where resources should go next.

The first task was harmonisation: bringing country-level datasets into a common structure so that a figure meant the same thing everywhere. Without that step, every comparison downstream is unsafe.

From there, country-level indicators were analysed and regional performance benchmarks engineered, so performance could be read both within a country and across the whole programme. The reporting was automated, so the analysis reached decision makers quickly and repeatably rather than being rebuilt by hand each cycle. The findings fed directly into funding decisions.