Program areas at IPA
Education: ipa partnered with the lego foundation and ministries of education in five countries to establish embedded evidence labs aimed at improving early learning outcomes for children. The primary objective is to enhance the use of data and evidence for education policy by embedding teams within the ministries. This approach fosters a horizontal learning process, enabling both parties to learn from each other while simultaneously building capacity in data and evidence utilization.in rwanda, ipa and the georgetown university initiative on innovation, development and evaluation (gui2 de) have established an embedded evidence lab to support the ministry of education in scaling a successful pay-for-performance contract scheme. The lab's current focus is on supporting the government of rwanda's new comprehensive assessment in public schools, which is necessary for an effective scale-up of the contract initiative. Its broader vision is to serve as a central hub providing services related to diverse educational themes, engaging with academics, strengthening policy-analytic capabilities, and fostering iterative feedback loops for policy design, evaluation, and adaptation. Ultimately, the embedded evidence lab aims to create an environment where data-driven decision-making and evidence-based practices lead to improved learning outcomes for students, making a lasting impact on education policy.
The financial inclusion program seeks to inform programs that can ensure low-income households have access to affordable and safe services to manage their financial resources. In 2022, ipa launched an embedded lab at the central bank of nigeria to strengthen the use of data and evidence-based decision-making within the department to enhance consumer protection policies and programs. It established the financial inclusion program scientific advisor group and the interoperable payment systems group and convened the annual researcher gathering. It completed a project in indonesia and lesotho on women entrepreneurs' access to financial services, which included working directly with financial service providers on prototyping new products and services based on rigorous evidence. In addition, ipa published five financial inclusion briefs and developed and launched new projects in bangladesh, the philippines, and tanzania.
One notable rct conducted by ipa in partnership with researchers michael kremer and edward miguel in kenya examined the impact of a free deworming program for children at schools. The results were remarkable. The program reduced serious worm infections by 61 percent and even had positive effects on untreated children in nearby areas (known as spillover effects). These health improvements translated into significant educational benefits, including a 25 percent reduction in school absenteeism and increased attendance in secondary school, particularly for girls.
Peace & recovery: ipa's work on peace and recovery aims to build rigorous evidence on effective ways to increase peace and stability in conflict and crisis-affected contexts. In 2022, ipa supported new research projects in this sector through a competitive research fund, including work on peacebuilding in nigeria, militarized policing in brazil, and integration of venezuelan migrants in colombia. Ipa also launched the displaced livelihoods initiative, a dedicated research fund to generate evidence on livelihoods programs for displaced populations.
Social protection: the social protection sector program aims to support countries to identify and implement the most effective Poverty reduction program that they can afford, given their financial and political contexts. Ipa has a growing body of research on identifying and scaling effective social protection programs, including cash transfers, graduation programs, and job training. In 2022, ipa continued to expand its work with the united states agency for international development (usaid) and bureau for humanitarian assistance (bha) with new research targeting resilience and food security for vulnerable households in mozambique and continues to advance similar studies in uganda, zimbabwe and malawi. The sector also began a new partnership with the boma project in kenya, investigating adaptations to graduation programs sitting at the nexus of climate change and social protection with support from the ikea foundation.
Innovations for Poverty Action (ipa) is a global research and policy nonprofit that discovers and advances what works to improve the lives of people living in Poverty. Limited evidence exists on what works to help people living in Poverty, and the evidence that does exist often goes unused. This leads to programs that are either ineffective or not as effective as they could be, and often to wasted money and enduring Poverty. Ipa exists to solve these problems. Ipa tests promising ideas across contexts and along the path to scale, proactively engages key decision-makers throughout the research process, shares findings with the right people at the right time, and equips partners with the skills and tools they need to use data and evidence.since ipa's founding in 2002, the organization has worked with over 600 leading academics to conduct over 900 evaluations in 52 countries. This research has informed hundreds of successful programs that now impact hundreds of millions of lives worldwide.