IPA - News and Announcements

Dean Karlan on MSNBC: The fight to end global poverty

hlinz — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:04:16 +0000

Apr 18/12

News

MSNBC

Dean Karlan discusses IPA's work and More than Good Intentions on MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan show. He explains how we find out what works and what doesn't and also encourages those who give to help the poor to embrace their good intentions but add to their dollar's impact by asking: "Does the organization [you give to] have clear evidence of their impact?"

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Water In The Time Of Cholera: Haiti's Most Urgent Health Problem

hlinz — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:58:40 +0000

Apr 12/12

News

NPR

NPR highlights chlorine dispensers developed by IPA in Oxfam America's program fighting cholera in Haiti. An excerpt:

So Oxfam is trying a simple, low-tech solution to provide clean water. The NGO is installing what they call "chlorine boxes" — green metal poles with dispensers on top. With a quick tap, it squirts just the right amount of chlorine to disinfect a 5-gallon bucket of water.

Soon there will be 90 chlorine boxes scattered around the surrounding villages, which get their water from sometimes-contaminated streams. "The cost of chlorine is very low," Rae says. "A $100 tub will cover all dispensers for six months."

When NPR visited, the hillside hamlet of Font de Liane was buzzing with excitement as a group of men dug holes and mixed cement to install two chlorine boxes.

"We were thirsty for something like this," says Jacob Labote, a schoolteacher who is chairman of the local water committee. "I believe that everybody will be using it."

To listen to the full story, click here.

To learn more about IPA's chlorine dispensers, click here.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/04/12/150302830/water-in-the-time-of-cholera-haitis-most-urgent-health-problem?ps=sh_sthdl

In India, a Small Pill, With Positive Side Effects

hlinz — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:52:02 +0000

Apr 4/12

News

Deworm the World was featured in the New York Times Opinionator Blog for their success in deworming in India. An excerpt:

"Deworming programs require surveillance, monitoring and evaluation, training of health workers and teachers, and education about sanitation and hygiene, as well as worms. Coordination in India was spearheaded by a global campaign called Deworm the World...For a year and a half, Deworm the World lobbied government officials in Delhi to get approvals and plan the campaign. In Bihar, it took less than a year of talks and planning to introduce the state’s deworming campaign."

Click here for the full article.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/in-india-a-small-pill-with-positive-side-effects/

Poor people do not live on eggs and bananas

hlinz — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:59:51 +0000

Mar 29/12

News

The Devex Development Newswire questions whether or not the development community has been spreading misconceptions of poverty, drawing on Abhijit Banerjee's work. An except:

Abhijit Banerjee, co-author of the book “Poor Economics” and Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT, says the development community often ties poverty with “hunger” and “malnutrition.” But Banerjee said income levels have nothing to do with malnutrition, and that some rich countries have higher rates of malnutrition than poor nations.

Click here for the full article.

http://www.devex.com/en/blogs/the-development-newswire/abhijit-banerjee-poor-people-do-not-live-on-eggs-and-bananas

Can Better Data End Global Poverty?

hlinz — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Mar 28/12

News

The Atlantic

The Atlantic discusses the strengths and limitations of randomized evaluations with Esther Duflo. An excerpt:

Do free bed nets in some countries lead to more cases of malaria? Could anti-parasite pills raise school attendance in one country and have no effect in another? How cheap does preventative care have to be for low-income families to see the doctor?

There might not be a perfect way to answer these thorny questions on a country-by-country basis. But some leading scientists think the most rigorous answer comes from what they call "randomized controlled trials."

Esther Duflo is widely recognized as the world's leading advocate of randomized controlled trials in development economics. As a methodology, RCTs have been used for over a half-century in clinical medicine, where the effect of a drug or medical procedure is confirmed or denied in scientific experiments involving control and treatment groups. The use of RCTs to address global poverty is a phenomenon of the last decade, but it has caught on with the force of a paradigm shift in economics, public policy, and other disciplines.

For the full article, click here.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/can-better-data-end-global-poverty/255143/

Quipu Commission Recognized by the Peruvian Government

hlinz — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Mar 26/12

News

Andina.com

Peru's Ministry of Economy and Finance as well as the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion announced that they would work together with the Quipu Commission to work to reduce poverty in Peru.

An excerpt (translated from original Spanish):

...the work of the Quipu Commission is extremely important as we work to improve social interventions, adequately distribute the state's resources, and ultimately to benefit the poorest of the poor, which is our principal objective....

The objective of the Quipu commission is to identify desired results and to work to understand which public policy interventions are most effective at acheiving those results.

The Quipu Commission seeks to generate innovative proposals and empirical evidence that the Peruvian government can use to answer key policy questions and design and implement better public policies. It is named after the quipu, a measurement device used by the Incas to keep track of its finances, economy, and demographics, among other areas of its empire.
To achieve this goal, J-PAL – along with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Soluciones Empresariales para la Pobreza (Business Solutions for Poverty; SEP), the Ministerio de Desarrollo e Inclusión Social of Peru (Ministry for Social Development and Inclusion; MIDIS), and the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (Ministry of Economics and Finance; MEF) – will bring together academics, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss the most pressing social issues and public policy questions in Peru and develop evidence-based policies that aim at resolving them.

Click here for the full story in Spanish.

http://www.andina.com.pe/Espanol/noticia-mef-y-midis-seran-socios-estrategicos-para-reducir-pobreza-manera-eficiente-405664.aspx

It's not what you tell them it's the way that you tell them...

hlinz — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:07:13 +0000

Feb 21/12

News

Philanthropy UK

Cheryl Chapman writes on Caroline Fiennes, author of soon to be published It ain't what you give, it's the way that you give it who cites IPA as proof that donors care about evidence. An excerpt:

"For example, in comparing programmes that address why children in India do not go to school, [IPA's study] identified that a dollar can be 25 times more effective in one program than if invested in another. No donor I have spoken to hasn't understood that and been affected by that statistic.”

Click here for the full article.

http://www.philanthropyuk.org/news/2012-02-21/too-many-facts-can-push-donors-not-giving-says-leading-economist

Mass de-worming drive in Delhi covered in The Hindu, BBC Asia

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:20:13 +0000

Feb 18/12

News

The Hindu

The Hindu, a leading newspaper in India, highlighted the efforts of Deworm the World (DtW) in partnership with the government of Delhi to "conduct a two-day mass de-worming programme at its 1,742 schools in the Capital beginning February 21." The deworming exercises were conducted on February 21st, with a "Mop-up Day" on February 27th.

Excerpt:

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will conduct a two-day mass de-worming programme at its 1,742 schools in the Capital beginning February 21.

Under the “Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojana” programme, students will be given chewable tablets of Mebendozole (500 m.g.) on February 21 and those absent would be covered in the final round on February 27.

...“The multi-pronged programme comprises health education, personal hygiene and regular de-worming after every six months while addressing the problem of worm infestation.”

...

The decision to go-ahead with de-worming in all MCD schools came following the result of studies revealing how de-worming has had a significant, positive impact on children's health, nutritional status growth, cognitive function and educational achievements.

Check out the full article here.

The deworming efforts were also covered by other major news organizations, including BBC Asia. Read more about the program and news coverage here.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article2905730.ece

Impulse Saving May Be ‘New’ New Thing

hlinz — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Feb 16/12

News

IPA's US Household Finance Initiative is working to test a path to savings that allows customers to save on impulse. An excerpt:

“People have intensions to save” but “get derailed by the lack of a clear, easy path to start saving,” said Innovations for Poverty Action’s (IPA) Jonathan Zinman, a Dartmouth College economist who worked with Coleman to create the product. The non-profit IPA granted $15,000 this month to set up RiteCheck’s program.

IPA is testing other programs for low-income people, including a savings account with a low $15 minimum deposit at a Washington, D.C., credit union and a debt-repayment program at a Tulsa, Okla., tax-filing service.

For the full article, click here.

http://fsp.bc.edu/impulse-saving-may-be-%E2%80%98new%E2%80%99-new-thing/

What are the realities of microfinance?

hlinz — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Feb 8/12

News

QN, A Publication of the Yale School of Management

Dean Karlan discusses his research on microfinance with Tony Sheldon and Rodrigo Canales at the Yale School of Management. An excerpt:

"We did discover some important patterns. For instance, in India, we saw an increase in business starts for households that had no business to begin with. If they already had a business, though, we didn't see any increase in what they were doing. There was definitely a ceiling above which they just did not excel. Microenterprises are not growing into the small and medium enterprises that are engines for growth."

To watch the video or read the transcript, click here.

http://qn.som.yale.edu/content/what-are-realities-microfinance