Any development action has costs and effort, and it is important to evaluate and consider the costs and benefits of these actions. Assessments need to be conducted before and after development interventions. It is be useful if development practitioners have the basic knowledge and hands on experience of social and economic analyses to use in the specific contexts that they work.

In this course, we introduce you to various methods of analysis to understand the economic and social impacts of development interventions. These range from quantitative skills and computer-based data analysis to a clear knowledge of financial analysis and how it differs from economic analysis. We take you through the basic principles of cost-benefit analysis, including microeconomic theories and environmental analysis. We will learn assessment of economic costs and benefits using methods based on revealed or stated purpose, cost-effectiveness, risk and uncertainty. Using approaches of control experiments and time-series and cross sectional data, we cover project evaluation, poverty impact analysis, and the impact of interventions on social groups.