Hansdeep Khaira, IOE Evaluation Officer, participated as a speaker in a conference on "Combination of satellite imagery with traditional evaluation techniques: the evaluation of IFAD’s Agricultural Support Project in Georgia". The event took place on 4 February 2019, from 12:30 to 14:00 CET.

This conference is part of a series presenting the use of innovative methodologies to conduct evaluations in hard-to-reach areas, organised by the Evaluation Support Service of the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), ‘Results' Unit.

The speakers discussed lessons learned from the integration of analysis of satellite imagery into the recent impact evaluation of IFAD’s Agricultural Support Project in Georgia.

The impact evaluation deployed two innovative approaches:

1. Genetic matching method for matching the treatment with the comparison group.
2. Time-series satellite imagery for comparing the change in vegetation cover between treatment and comparison group farm plots before and after the rehabilitation of the irrigation schemes.

The findings from the use of these techniques were triangulated with findings from traditional evaluation methods such as impact surveys, interviews and focus groups.

Download the presentation paper of the cycle here.