Speakers:
Kunal Sen, University of Manchester: 'Of overhangs and legacies: re-examining the impacts of British Colonialism in India'  
Richard Palmer-Jones, University of East Anglia: 'TV and Modernisation? We don't think so.'
Maren Duvendack, Overseas Development Institute (ODI):'Replication, Reproduction and the Credibility of Micro-econometric Studies of the Impact of Microfinance and Informal Sector Borrowing in Bangladesh.'

David Roodman stated in his blog on 23 May: "Probably you agree that actions meant to help poor people should be guided by the best science about what works... And probably you’d concede that part of what makes science science is replicability... In this way, replicability is at the heart of the grand project to give everyone a shot at a decent life." 


By replicating studies, we aim to assess how credible results are, or whether they can be achieved in different places or among different beneficiaries. Attempts to implement, and evaluate, the same programmes in different contexts (so-called 'external replication') are already at the heart of development practice. However, attempts to reproduce the same results, using the same or similar data ('internal replication'), to ensure credibility, is a relatively new, but growing area of development research.

3ie has just launched an internal replication programme to do precisely this for influential, innovative, and controversial impact evaluations of development programs.

The 3ie-LIDC Replication Symposium will feature three replication studies covering a variety of topics – the impact of colonialism, TV and modernisation, and microfinance. The studies presented will reveal common challenges and opportunities posed by replication studies, and will be used as a departure point for a discussion, including (but not limited to) policy implications of replication studies, with DFID’s Head of Evaluation as part of the panel.