Using Internal Evaluations to Measure Organisational Impact: A Meta-Analysis of Oxfam’s Women’s Empowerment Projects

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis examining the overall impact of women’s empowerment projects evaluated as part of Oxfam GB’s Effectiveness Reviews. Results show a positive and significant impact on the Women’s Empowerment Index and mixed results with its individual indicators. We found a statistically significant effect on opinions on women’s economic role and their ability to participate in and influence the community. We did not find evidence of overall changes in power within the household nor with share of household income. The meta-analysis also found statically significant overall effects where the individual studies were too underpowered to detect impact. This paper provides an example of how using meta-analysis in the presence of a robust organisational global evaluation framework can enable evidence-based learning, organisational accountability and better programme implementation.