New on ImpactMojo, 4 to 7 October 2026
Twenty new 101 courses, a Code Studio, thirteen reading companions and four Field Radio videos, and courses brought up to date with NFHS-6, the DPDP Act and the new labour law. Links to all of it.
Learning Loops
The ImpactMojo Blog: insights on MEAL, Theory of Change, research methods, and building capacity in the development sector.
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Six new 101 courses on research methods
Systematic reviews, academic writing, time series, structural equation modelling, statistics without code and qualitative analysis software: six free 100-slide decks built in one week, what each one insists on, and the gap they were built to close.
A workshop should be a text file
Six workshops published as Markdown you can download, edit and run. Why a deck is a bad container for a session, the whole format in two lines, and the twenty-minute checker that catches the failure a preview hides.
Everything on ImpactMojo about gender, in one place
Three flagship courses, six 101 decks, three Studios, two deep dives, six reading companions and the printable handouts: what each one is for, why the same Time Use table supports both “3.2 times” and “5.9 times”, and the three gaps we have not filled.
Designing an Impact Evaluation: Eight Steps, and When to Take Them
The standard guidance lists eight steps in order. In practice the sixth one, the counterfactual, constrains every step before it, and teams that reach it last usually find their options already gone. What to ask in the first meeting instead.
Animal Welfare Law and the Fifty-Rupee Fine
India read animal dignity into the right to life in 2014 and drafted cage-free rules in 2017. The maximum fine for a first offence of cruelty is still the fifty rupees set in 1960. Four charts on the gap between what the law says and what it costs.
The p-value answers a question you probably aren’t asking
A p-value and a confidence interval answer different questions. Knowing which is which changes what you do with a result: with a worked example from a programme evaluation.
The judgment you cited may have been overruled
A Supreme Court judgment was delivered in May 2025, recalled in November, and reheard in July 2026. Nothing in anyone’s files changed on any of those dates. What to check before citing a case, and what is now free to check.
What India’s unemployment rate hides about who works
By social group the unemployment rate moves 1.6 points; labour-force participation moves twenty, in the other direction. Why the two rates have different denominators, and the rule thirteen data explorers ended up following.
Own the whole course: printable Course Notes, and four new 101 courses
Every flagship now ships a printable Course Notes PDF you can own and annotate: plus four timely new free 101 courses on GenAI, data protection, safeguarding and disability inclusion.
Dividing Good by Money: Effective Altruism, Cost per Outcome, and What Arithmetic Cannot Settle
The strongest case for letting cost-effectiveness decide, the five objections that defeat it, and eight working principles that keep the counting while withdrawing its authority to conclude. Sourced throughout: Singer, Rawls, Pogge, Deaton, Sen, the deworming replications and the Indian case law.
What Would Have Happened Anyway? The Counterfactual Habit
Every impact claim implies a counterfactual. Four traps that fool boards and funders, the hierarchy of honest answers, and three questions to ask of any number that claims impact: no statistics required.
What the Evidence Actually Says About Cash Transfers
Cash transfers went from heresy to the default benchmark in development. A practitioner's guide to what the evidence shows: UCT vs CCT, cash vs in-kind, delivery & leakage, and India's DBT.
How to Write a ToR That Gets You Useful Research
The two biggest reasons research engagements fail: unclear scopes and asking for the wrong type of research. Here's how to write a ToR/SoW/RFP that fixes both: plus honest India 2026 budget benchmarks.
Knowing What You Want
The quiet, hardest, most-skipped step in development work: actually knowing what you want, before you build the theory of change for it.
What It Actually Takes to Make an Accessible Website
A real story of going from 393 WCAG violations to zero in one afternoon: the bugs we found, and the lessons that travel.
SMART vs SPICED: Choosing the Right Framework for Your Indicators
A practical comparison of two popular indicator frameworks--and when to use each for maximum impact in your M&E work.
5 Common Theory of Change Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them)
Why most ToCs fail to drive real learning--and what you can do differently to make yours a living document.
A Beginner's Guide to Qualitative Data Analysis
From coding to theming: making sense of interviews, FGDs, and open-ended survey responses.
Why We Made ImpactMojo Free (And Always Will)
The story behind our "pay what you think is fair" philosophy and why access to quality development education shouldn't depend on budgets.
Sample Size Matters: A Practical Guide for Development Practitioners
Statistical power and sample size calculations explained without the jargon--and why getting the numbers right matters.
From Learner to Leader: Stories from the Field
How development practitioners across South Asia are building their skills and transforming their organizations.
What We've Shipped in 2026 (So Far)
The December roadmap, six months in: an honest scorecard of what shipped, what's in progress, and what's still ahead.
From M&E to MEL: How Development Monitoring Evolved
Tracing the evolution from basic project tracking to the integrated MEAL framework used across the development sector today.
Beyond Vanity Metrics: Designing Indicators That Actually Matter
How to distinguish between vanity metrics and meaningful indicators that drive real programme improvement.
Data Quality When the Field Isn't a Lab
Practical strategies for maintaining data quality in challenging South Asian field conditions.
Participatory MEL: when communities lead the evaluation
How participatory approaches shift power to communities and produce richer evidence for programme improvement.
Theory of Change for Complex Programmes: Beyond Linear Thinking
Why linear theories of change fail for complex programmes and how systems thinking offers better alternatives.
Testing Your Assumptions: The Most Neglected Step in Programme Design
Why assumptions matter more than activities and how to test the hidden beliefs underlying your programme.
Theory of Change vs Logframe: Complementary, Not Competing
Understanding how these two tools serve different but complementary purposes in programme design.
Adaptive Management: Keeping Your Theory of Change Alive
Why most ToCs die after the proposal and how adaptive management keeps them relevant throughout implementation.
Mixed Methods in Evaluation: Getting the Best of Both Worlds
Why neither quantitative nor qualitative alone is sufficient and how to combine them effectively.
Quasi-Experimental Designs: When Randomisation Isn't Possible
DiD, RDD, PSM and other approaches for rigorous evaluation when RCTs aren't feasible or ethical.
Ethical Research in South Asia: Beyond the IRB Checklist
Why Western ethical frameworks don't fully apply and what genuine ethical research looks like in South Asia.
When Data Changed Everything: Stories of Evidence-Based Pivots
Three stories of organisations that changed direction based on M&E evidence, and the courage it took.
Communities as Evaluation Partners: Beyond Extractive Research
Stories of communities driving their own evaluation: from SHGs in Tamil Nadu to youth monitoring in Kolkata.
Building a Culture of Learning: It Starts with Psychological Safety
Why most organisations talk about learning but don't do it, and how to change that.
Why Open Educational Resources Matter for Development
The open education movement and why it matters for professional development in the development sector.
The South Asian Development Landscape in 2026
Key trends across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka: localisation, digital transformation, and SDG progress.
Why ImpactMojo Works on Any Phone, on Any Connection
A transparent look at our tech stack and why we chose simplicity over complexity.
Now You Can Ask an AI Assistant to Search ImpactMojo
How our MCP server lets any AI assistant search 700+ development education resources.
How Open Tools Change What a Small NGO Can Do
How GitHub's open-source ecosystem is transforming development practice in South Asia.
Making Learning Multilingual: Lessons from Building in Five Languages
Our journey adding Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, and what we learned about cultural adaptation.