Thomas De Hoop

Managing Economist and Program Area Lead, Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition

Thomas de Hoop is an internationally recognized expert in designing and implementing mixed methods randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental studies, and systematic reviews of international development programs. He oversees AIR’s international research and evaluation portfolio focused on food security, agriculture, and nutrition. As a trained development economist, he has published widely on self-help groups (SHGs), savings groups, and education, including the most cited systematic review on the impact of economic SHG programs on women’s empowerment. This systematic review was one of the first to use a mixed-methods approach, which has since become best practice for systematic reviews focused on international development.

Read our Q&A with Thomas de Hoop about his work in international development

Dr. de Hoop currently directs a World Bank-funded quasi-experimental study on the impact and cost-effectiveness of the Nigeria for Women Project, a large-scale government-supported savings group program, and a Gates Foundation-funded portfolio of evaluations focused on digital financial services in nine countries across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, he oversees two impact evaluations on education innovations in Zambia.

His recent publications include studies on social protection systems in India, the impact of savings groups in Nigeria, the cost-effectiveness of the Jeevika SHG program in Bihar, India, a special issue on education in humanitarian contexts, and a cluster-RCT on the impact of technology-aided instruction in Zambia.

Previously, he led the Gates Foundation-funded Evidence Consortium on Women’s Groups, which included a study on the impact of SHGs on employment outcomes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and various studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on SHG and savings group functioning. Further, he led the first two evidence syntheses commissioned by the Global Sustainable Goal (SDG) synthesis coalition.

In addition to his research, Dr. de Hoop is a frequent speaker at academic and non-academic conferences. He recently delivered a keynote on the impact of savings groups during the from Evidence to Action conference in Accra, Ghana, and presented the synthesis of the partnership pillar during the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and the SDG Action weekend during the United Nations General Assembly.

Related Work

Cash transfer participants in Madagascar

2026-05-13

When Do Cash Transfers Improve Health and Save Lives?

13 May 2026

A wealth of evidence shows that large-scale, government-run cash transfer programs consistently improve food security and help people make investments to generate income. But we need a more solid evidence base that supports planning and programming decisions.

2026-03-31

Projecting Malaria Risk in Africa Accurately and Sustainably

31 Mar 2026

Early warning systems, like Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), may help decisionmakers and relief agencies plan for and respond to malaria risk, like they do for other humanitarian and public health crises.

2025-11-01

Projecting and Modeling Malaria Risk

AIR is committed to advancing malaria modeling and early warning capabilities through the development of projection models that incorporate country‑specific parameters within a standardized, cross‑country framework.

2025-11-01

Understanding When Cash Transfers Deliver Health and Survival Gains

AIR is examining the conditions under which cash transfers improve health by pooling data from rigorous impact evaluations of government‑supported cash transfer programs in sub‑Saharan Africa.

2024-10-01

Improving the Quality of Education in Rural Zambia by Implementing and Evaluating Different School Interventions

AIR researchers and its partners, Impact Network, Promoting Equality in African Schools (PEAS), and Palm Associates will address long-standing educational inequities in some of Zambia’s most vulnerable settings. In educational attendance and enrollment, the Eastern Province—the region targeted under this project—ranks the lowest among all provinces in the country. ...

2023-11-01

Evidence Synthesis of Nutrition-Sensitive Programs

AIR partnered with the World Bank to synthesize evidence on the impact of nutrition-sensitive interventions on nutrition outcomes such as stunting and wasting, as well as dietary diversity, and the cost-effectiveness of nutrition-sensitive interventions.

2023-10-10

Special Issue - Education in Humanitarian Contexts: Evidence from Impact and Process Evaluations

10 Oct 2023

As part of the Humanitarian Education Accelerator work conducted for UNICEF, UNHCR, and FCDO, AIR conducted three impact and five process evaluations of education innovations in humanitarian contexts. Based on the expertise gained from this work, AIR partnered with the Journal of Development Effectiveness to develop a special issue on ...

2023-10-01

Systematic Review of Integrated Economic and Health Interventions with Women’s Groups

In partnership with the Population Council and Stanford University, AIR is conducting a systematic review to synthesize findings from experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations and linked process evaluations or qualitative research to examine the theories of change, enablers and barriers associated with achieving health outcomes through women’s groups that integrate economic ...

2023-03-30

Intraclass Correlations Values in International Development

30 Mar 2023

Knowledge of comparative analysis of intraclass correlations (ICCs) forms an important tool to properly design impact evaluations of development interventions, especially cluster randomized control trials, by ensuring that an evaluation has sufficient statistical power. This paper takes an important step towards helping researchers to accurately estimate appropriate sample sizes for ...

2023-01-01

Evidence Synthesis of the Sustainable Development Goal 17 Partnership Pillar

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as an urgent call for action to encourage all countries to work on ending poverty while improving health and education, reducing inequality, stimulating economic growth, and addressing extreme climate events. With the endpoint of 2030 approaching, it is critical to assess progress toward ...

2022-03-31

COVID-19 and the Organic Cotton Farming Sector in Madhya Pradesh, India, in 2020

31 Mar 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic led to nationwide lockdowns and caused supply chain disruptions in India which affected the nascent organic cotton farming sector in the country. This AIR-funded study explores the resilience of small holder organic cotton farmers in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and documents the strategies adopted by organic ...

2022-02-01

A Systematic Measure of Gender Norms Across South Asia – Analysis & Measurement Tool

Gender equality is central to the World Bank’s goals of ending extreme poverty and improving development outcomes. AIR partnered with Leveraging Evidence for Access and Development (LEAD) at Krea University to develop a standardized tool to measure gender norms in South Asia.

African little girls are learning English language, orphanage in Kenya

2022-01-16

Operational Research on Cash Transfers for the KEEP Remedial Education Project

World University Service of Canada (WUSC)’s Kenya-based project, KEEP, aims to create a conducive learning environment that supports over 20,000 girls from Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and surrounding communities for whom conflict, displacement and poverty have made access and continuation of education challenging. WUSC together with Windle International Kenya, ...

2021-10-01

Scoping Review on Women's Groups in Uganda

In partnership with the Campbell Collaboration and Makerere University, AIR is conducting a scoping review to examine the evidence base and evidence gaps on women’s groups in Uganda.

2021-06-15

Impact Evaluation of the Nigeria for Women Project

AIR is conducting an impact evaluation of the Nigeria for Women Project, which aims to improve women’s livelihood opportunities and facilitate their access to economic markets using a model of women’s affinity groups.

2021-03-01

Evidence Consortium on Women's Groups

To counter socioeconomic and structural challenges in low- and middle-income countries, governments, development agencies, and nongovernmental organizations have invested in different types of women’s empowerment collectives (WECs), including economic self-help group programs and women’s groups practicing participatory learning and action. ...

2021-01-01

Systems and Analytics Support to Digital Transformation for Food Systems Data Sharing and Visualization

A key component of Kenya’s Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS) is to leverage digital technologies in agriculture to increase small-scale farmer incomes, improve year-round food availability, and boost household food resilience for the most vulnerable. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) ...

2020-02-20

Midline Report for the Mixed-Methods Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of Impact Network’s eSchool 360 Model in Rural Zambia

20 Feb 2020

The eSchool 360 model implemented by Impact Network represents a promising approach to improving educational outcomes in Zambia by incorporating three potentially high-impact components that could create important synergies. This report presents the midline results of the cluster-randomized controlled trial used to determine the impact of the model. ...

2020-01-14

What Works to Improve Early Grade Literacy in Latin America and the Caribbean? A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

14 Jan 2020

Educational policies on early grade literacy in Latin America and the Caribbean have long suffered from a disjuncture between school practice and research. This systematic review examines the effectiveness and fidelity of implementation of various programs in the LAC region that aim to improve EGL outcomes, including teacher training, school ...

2020-01-01

Humanitarian Education Accelerator

The Department for International Development, UNICEF, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees established the Humanitarian Education Accelerator (HEA), with the aim of understanding how to create the conditions necessary to scale existing pilot programs. In order to begin building the evidence base, the HEA engaged AIR to produce ...

Image of woman in colorful sari picking cotton

2019-01-01

Social, Economic, and Environmental Impact Assessment of Cotton Farming in Madhya Pradesh, India

India is the largest producer of cotton in the world. AIR and its partners conducted a social, economic, and environmental impact assessment of cotton farming in Madhya Pradesh, with the aim of better understanding the outcomes for cotton farming on the farmers and the environment.

AIR data collector interviews a respondent in Samburu, Kenya as part of the PREG project

2019-01-01

Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth, Northern Kenya: Impact Evaluation Recurrent Monitoring System

USAID's Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth brought together humanitarian and development partners to build resilience among Kenya’s vulnerable pastoralist communities in the country’s arid and semi-arid lands. PREG focused on nine vulnerable and high-risk areas and works with the Government of Kenya at both national and county levels to ...

2018-10-01

Evaluation of the Georgia Food for Progress (FFPr) Project

AIR evaluated the FFPr project, which aims to revolutionize the dairy and beef sectors in Georgia. The project activities focused on enhancing income and productivity at the farmer level, as well as removing bottlenecks along dairy and beef value chains.

2018-07-30

Language and the Learning Crisis: Evidence of Transfer Threshold Mechanisms in Multilingual Reading in South India

30 Jul 2018

Despite significant progress in school enrollment numbers, improvements in students' learning achievement have lagged behind in low- and middle-income countries. This paper examines when local language-speaking children in South India are ready to begin literacy acquisition in English (a second or later acquired language). ...

2018-04-30

Baseline Report for the Mixed-Methods Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of Impact Network’s eSchool 360 Model in Rural Zambia

30 Apr 2018

Impact Network’s eSchool 360 program is a multifaceted program comprising an e-learning technology component, ongoing teacher training and professional development, and community ownership among students in community schools in rural Zambia. This report presents the baseline results of the cluster-randomized control trial used to determine the impact of the eSchool ...

2017-10-01

The Effects of Mainstreaming Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Under BRAC’s MNCH Programme

01 Oct 2017

To combat malnutrition, BRAC Bangladesh has implemented Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health programming focused on nutrition and early childhood development. This programming is designed to combat malnutrition in pregnant-lactating women and young children, as well as to implement multiple strategies to establish better practices for breastfeeding and child feeding, build ...

2017-09-26

Inception Report for the Mixed- Methods Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of Impact Network’s eSchool 360 Model in Rural Zambia

26 Sep 2017

Although the use of technology in education shows a lot of promise for improving learning outcomes in low-and middle-income countries, the evidence on its impacts is underwhelming. Its effectiveness could, however, be improved if technology were combined with a strong focus on pedagogical practices. This study focuses on the effects ...

2017-05-01

Evaluation of World University Service of Canada’s Remedial Education Program in Dadaab and Kakuma in Kenya

The challenges of providing quality education to refugees are particularly pronounced in Kenya, which hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees in Kakuma and Dadaab, the largest refugee camp complex in the world. AIR is partnering with the World University Service of Canada and its local partner Windle Trust Kenya to ...

2017-04-01

The Zambia eSchool 360 Evaluation Project

Impact Network’s eSchool 360 program is a multifaceted program comprising an e-learning technology component, ongoing teacher training and professional development, and community ownership among students in community schools in rural Zambia. AIR will design and implement a two-stage mixed-methods evaluation to measure the effect of Impact Network’s eSchool 360 program ...

2016-05-01

Evaluation of Generation Rwanda’s Kepler Program

The Kiziba Refugee Camp in western Rwanda houses primarily Congolese refugees who fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1996. Of the more than 17,000 refugees, over 8,100 of these are youth under the age of 18, the majority of whom have lived in the camp since birth. ...

2015-02-12

Facilitating Reading Acquisition in Multilingual Environments in India (FRAME-India) - Final Report

12 Feb 2015

Most of the world is multilingual—at the national, community, family, and individual levels—and each of these has implications for teaching and learning. This study is one of the first to focus on a theory of change relevant for multilingual learners in the developing world. Pooja Nakamura introduces the report in ...

2015-01-01

Impact Evaluation of BRAC’s Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Program

Malnutrition is one of the most serious global health problems. Advancing the knowledge base about the effects of nutrition and early childhood development programs on nutrition outcomes is particularly important in Bangladesh. AIR is evaluating a large-scale nutrition program and a pilot program to combat malnutrition in the country. ...

2015-01-01

Vocational and Business Training to Increase Women’s Participation in Higher Skilled, Higher Valued Occupations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: 3ie Systematic Review

Although women’s employment possibilities have improved with the rise of globalization, women in low- and middle-income countries often perform jobs that have low skill requirements and frequently choose occupations that are highly feminized, tend to be less socially valued, and pay lower wages. This systematic review will be the first ...

2014-04-21

Women's Autonomy and Subjective Well-Being: How Gender Norms Shape the Impact of Self-Help Groups in Odisha, India

21 Apr 2014

Self-help groups are a popular strategy for empowering women in India. These groups are composed of ten to twenty women and focus on savings and credit programs or advancing group members' claims or rights. This study presents impact estimates of women's self-help group membership on subjective well-being in ...

2014-01-01

Impact Evaluation of an Affordable Housing Program in India

In the absence of viable affordable housing policies, the percentage of India’s urban population that cannot afford a home will increase substantially in the next couple of years. AIR examined the impact of a program, developed by the UK Government and the Indian National Housing Bank, that focuses on increasing ...

2014-01-01

Review of Evaluations Commissioned by UTZ Certified

UTZ is a non-governmental organization that designs programs that support farmers in obtaining certification when they adopt sustainable agricultural practices in the production of coffee, tea, and cocoa. AIR reviews the quality of the UTZ-commissioned evaluations and provides recommendations about UTZ’s evaluations strategy. ...

2014-01-01

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)

01 Jan 2014

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is a way of doing impact evaluation in which the population receiving the program or policy intervention is chosen at random from the eligible population, and a control group is also chosen at random from the same eligible population. This report disects randomized controlled trials ...

2013-10-01

Improving Early Childhood in Zambia

In resource-limited settings such as Southern Africa, malnutrition and infectious diseases need to be an integral part of thinking about early childhood interventions. AIR conducted a cluster-randomized trial to test the feasibility and preliminary impact of a package of community-based early childhood services in a rural area of Zambia. ...

Two Indian women working at a pottery wheel

2012-01-01

The Effects of Economic Self-Help Group Programs on Women’s Empowerment: A Systematic Review

Self-help group programs are the most popular development intervention to stimulate women’s empowerment in South Asia. In partnership with Touro University, AIR conducted a mixed-methods systematic review to determine the impact of women’s self-help groups on empowerment.

2007-01-01

Synthesis Review of and Evaluation Strategy for UNICEF’s Basic Education Interventions

Between 2007 and 2013, UNICEF commissioned 133 evaluations of UNICEF-supported basic education interventions. AIR conducted a synthesis review to determine their effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, and sustainability, and advised UNICEF on how, when, and for what to invest limited resources in rigorous evaluations of the impact of basic education interventions. ...

Ph.D., Development Studies
Radboud University Nijmegen

MSc, Development Economics
VU University Amsterdam

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