Here you can find supporting material to draft a Terms of Reference (ToR) document in order to outsource a CIE study:

1. guideline on how to write a ToR in view of a CIE;
2. video tutorial on how to write a ToR;
3. checklist  document to ensure all necessary elements are present in the ToR document and to review its overall quality;
4. standard template with the requested information for each section. 

Finding the right method to perform a CIE depends on how the intervention was designed, and on the data available to evaluators. The following material may help in this step:

1. videotutorial on how to choose the method, based on  intervention design: 'Tips and tricks on how to plan intervention design';
2. videotutorial on how to choose the method, based on available  data:  'Data collection, Data access and Data merging'.
    

Here you can find material on various methods to perform a CIE study.

1. An overview of all available methods
   1. guidance document 'Design and commissioning of counterfactual impact evaluations'.
2. Propensity Score Matching (PSM)
   1. video 'How to evaluate policy';
   2. example from the Data Fitness Initiative for CIE: report ‘Counterfactual Impact Evaluation of “Work Experience Laureati e Laureate – WELL” (Work Experience for Graduates)’ (see section 5).
3. Difference-in-Difference (DiD)
   1. video 'Difference-in-Differences method for policy evaluation'.
4. Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD)
   1. video 'Regression Discontinuity Design for policy evaluation';
   2. example from the Data Fitness Initiative for CIE: report ‘Vocational training and labour market outcomes: Evidence from Youth Guarantee in Latvia’ (see section 6).
5. More advanced CIE methods: Synthetic Control, Sequence Analysis, Dynamic Matching
   1. 'Advanced counterfactual evaluation methods. Guidance document'.
6. Counterfactual Evaluation Archive (CEA)
   CEA is an online database which classifies published articles and working papers using counterfactual impact evaluation methods to assess the impact of active labour market policies within EU28. Use filters to search for studies regarding the country, the CIE method or the target group you are interested in.

After the evaluation is completed, it is important to communicate the relevant findings to involved stakeholders. Here you find some material to help you at this stage.

1. video tutorial 'Communicating the Results of Counterfactual Impact Evaluations', to learn how to communicate results to policy makers;
2. CoP - CIE - ESF, meetings to share your experience with other Managing Authorities.

The Counterfactual Evaluation Archive (CEA) which classifies published articles and working papers using counterfactual impact evaluation methods to assess the impact of active labour market policies within EU28. Use filters to search for studies regarding the country, the CIE method or the target group you are interested in.

Here you can find examples of evaluations of ESF funded interventions evaluations carried out by CRIE in collaboration with the ESF Managing Authorities in the context of the Data Fitness Initiative for CIE:

1. Counterfactual Impact Evaluation of “Work Experience Laureati e Laureate – WELL” (Work Experience for Graduates) illustrating the evaluation of a regional on-the-job training program implemented in Italy;
2. Vocational training and labour market outcomes: Evidence from Youth Guarantee in Latvia  illustrating the evaluation of a vocational training program implemented in Latvia within the Youth Guarantee scheme.
3. Active Labour Market Policies in Flanders. Evaluation of the ESF “Work Experience for Young Persons” programme, illustrating the evaluation of an ALMP  implemented in Flanders
4. The evaluation of the Youth Employment Initiative in Portugal using Counterfactual Impact Evaluation methods.

Here you can find a collection of examples of ESF funded interventions evaluations:

1. Guidance document on ESF evaluations examples.