Using Retrospective Survey Measurement in Assessing Migrant Reintegration: Evidence from IOM programmes in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan

How can practitioners and policymakers effectively measure the impact of migration policy programmes? More specifically, how can ex ante baselines be measured in a context of transitory populations, developing countries, and sometimes reactive and hastily assembled policy interventions? This brief theoretically and empirically considers the extent to which retrospective baseline measurement can act as an accurate and, in some circumstances, optimal solution to these challenges. It is based on a research conducted in the context of the “IMPACT Study” evaluation of the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration (Horn of Africa), in which a retrospective baseline measurement was introduced for both practical and methodological purposes.