Evaluation that travels — across 170+ countries and radically different contexts.
RISEI's global portfolio centers on the Special Olympics International evaluation network: unified sports, high-school completion, and community attitudes research at global scale — plus the methodological innovation that makes rigorous evaluation portable.
Across six very different countries, the effects travel.
The global evaluation of the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools program found significant improvements in inclusion, school climate, and peer interactions across Argentina, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Romania, and Rwanda. Effect sizes vary, but more than 70% of peers in every participating country reported more positive interactions with students with intellectual disabilities after UCS activities.
What this demonstrates isn't just that unified sports works — it's that rigorous evaluation can travel across radically different cultural, economic, and educational contexts when instruments are designed for travel from day one.
6-country final report (2024) HS completion studyWhat builds opportunity in one country often doesn't in another. But the evidence design can travel — if you build it for travel from day one.— RISEI global research principle
International evaluation, rethought.
What shifts when we design evaluation to be portable rather than locally bespoke.
Traditional international eval
- Instruments built for one country
- Translation layered on after design
- Local findings, limited comparability
- Power outages break data capture
- No cross-country comparison possible
RISEI global model
- Translation-safe instruments from day one
- Mixed-mode data capture (offline + online)
- Multi-country comparisons built in
- Common cohort definitions across sites
- Findings generalize and direction holds
Four active fronts in global inclusion.
Each thread runs across the SOI network and beyond — in dialogue with our domestic workforce and education portfolios.
Unified Champion Schools in Six Countries
Final report on the global expansion of the Special Olympics UCS program to Argentina, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Romania, and Rwanda. Mixed-methods evaluation of participation, school climate, social-emotional learning, and attitudes across culturally and economically diverse contexts.
HS Completion
Longitudinal evaluation of whether Special Olympics participation is associated with improved high-school completion for participants with intellectual disabilities.
Portable Evaluation Methodology
How we run rigorous evaluation across 170+ countries: translation-safe instruments, mixed-mode data collection (offline-capable), common cohort definitions, and sampling at scale. Our methodology innovation is exportable to other international programs.
International Partnerships
Evaluation partner and TA provider for international NGOs and multilateral institutions working on youth, workforce, and inclusion programs — including Special Olympics International, Inter-American Development Bank, and Chinese University of Hong Kong.
170+ countries, one evaluation network.
The Special Olympics International evaluation network gives RISEI a global lens on inclusion and opportunity — with live data collection across radically different contexts and common cohort definitions that make comparisons possible.
See 6-country findings →Published from this area.
Running a program across multiple countries?
RISEI designs and delivers evaluation at international scale — from methodology design to translation-safe instruments to mixed-mode data collection. We partner with NGOs, multilaterals, and agencies working globally.
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