This webinar drew lessons from a retrospective study of the impacts of assets for natural resource management in Ethiopia and Kenya in order to learn lessons about PWP design and implementation, and how, when to use PWP.   It explored methodologies to assess the livelihoods impacts of PWP assets, illustrating how a range of mixed methods evaluation techniques can be used to assess the livelihoods and resilience impacts of PWP assets created three to five years previously and identifies the factors that drove performance outcomes. More fundamentally, it will also discuss why there is so little evidence that PWP assets have the impacts that are claimed for them; and the underlying reasons why PWP have so often failed to create useful assets.  This webinar was based on the SPARC/ODI paper: Do public works programmes create valuable assets for livelihoods and resilience? A retrospective study of the impacts of assets for natural resource management in Ethiopia and Kenya.

This was the second session of the “Public Works in a Changing Geopolitical and Climate Context: Lessons for the Future” webinar series organised by ILO, ODI, World Bank, and the Poverty and Inequality Practice that aims to share lessons from three recent papers which explore fundamental questions about the design, impact, and political economy of public works programming, drawing lessons for enhanced programming in response to a changing context.

Speakers:

• Anna McCord, Senior Research Associate, ODI
• Simon Levine, Research Fellow in the Global Risks and Resilience programme, ODI Global
• Amarjeet Sinha, Former Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, India
• Christo Marais, Former Chief Director of Natural Resource Management Programmes, Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa

Moderator: Eva Ludi, Head of Regional Stewardship Hubs, Wyss Academy for Nature, Bern, Switzerland