IEWG updates

[Tanya O'Garra]

Dear Counterfactual community,

The summer is in full swing in the northern hemisphere, and many of you may be either on holiday or in the field. The Impact Evaluation Working Group board is taking a well-earned break before we restart acitivities again in October. Here is a brief update on what the working group has been up to this year:

• Conferences! We were busy this year - we had board members attend SCB-Asia (CAC2026) in Nepal and ECCB2026 in Leiden, hosting symposia, impact evaluation training sessions, and meeting lots of wonderful people! 
  • We will also be at the forthcoming African Congress for Conservation Biology in Lagos at the end of August, delivering introductory training on impact evaluation in practice - keep an eye on the programme if you would like to attend. We will also post updates here and on social media.
• Arcus-IEWG collaboration: in collaboration with Arcus Foundation, the IEWG engaged with eight Arcus grantees to kickstart the process of using impact evaluations in practice - starting with developing robust theories of change, engaging in counterfactal thinking and thinking about alternative causes! We had a wonderful team of mentors, workshop leads, and support staff making this happen - thanks to all! And thanks to Arcus and the eight wonderful organisations!
  • If you are a foundation or organisation, and would like to discuss collaborating with the IEWG in delivering impact evaluation capacity-building, please contact us on teamcount...@gmail.com 
• Research briefings: two awesome summaries of the recent research on causal inference and impact evaluation in conservation found here.
• Virtual seminars: another great year from our visrtual seminar series (Tuesdayswithteamcounterfactual) wonderfuly hosted by Allen Blackman and Julia Jones. We will start again in October - watch this space! 
• Mentoring: another great year for mentoring, with 6 mentor-mentee pairs engaging in capactity-sharing.

And it's likely I've missed some things here - but you get the gist :)

Thanks to all my amazing colleagues on the IEWG board!! 

As a heads up, in October we will be advertising for 1-2 new roles on the board as we scale up our acitivites and outreach. We are also looking for volunteers to help with social media - if you are interested please email us at teamcount...@gmail.com .

See you in October!

Best,

Tanya and the IEWG board