The Pakistan Data and Evidence Lab (DEL) has been established to support Pakistan's long-term development goals, in line with the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for fiscal years 2026 to 2035. The CPF aims to address six key areas: reducing child stunting, addressing learning poverty, increasing resilience to climate change, improving public resource mobilization for inclusive development, boosting productive private investment, and enhancing human capital. This initiative is a collaboration between the World Bank’s Poverty Global Department and the South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab.
The DEL operates through three core pillars: strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems, improving the National Statistical System, and conducting rigorous impact evaluations. These efforts aim to generate high-quality evidence with a focus on gender outcomes while rigorously evaluating development programs.
The first pillar emphasizes enhancing M&E practices to improve how the World Bank tracks project success. A notable initiative under this pillar is the "Listening to Pakistan" survey, which collects data via mobile phone surveys to provide insights into socio-economic conditions in Pakistan.
The second pillar focuses on making data more accessible and valuable for decision-making by working with government institutions to improve data quality and connectivity between different sources. This effort also supports federal and provincial agencies in better data collection and use.
The third pillar involves using rigorous research methods like Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) to measure project effectiveness. Led by the South Asia Region’s Social Development Practice and SAR GIL, this pillar aims to understand what works best in addressing challenges while emphasizing closing gender gaps.
Impact Evaluations are crucial for understanding intervention effectiveness in Pakistan. By generating evidence on what works, these evaluations guide better decisions and improve policies across the country.