As part of IPA’s ongoing research around the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, we recently held a webinar with the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network highlighting key results of the second round of the RECOVR surveys in Zambia and Rwanda.


To mark the occasion of International Women's Day, IPA presents the second of three blog posts this week interviewing female policymakers we've worked with in different countries around the world. They told us about their experiences working in government and promoting a culture of evidence-based policymaking within their institutions, how the COVID-19 pandemic changed their work, and what long-term impacts they hope to achieve in the sectors in which they work.

By Dr. Andrew Silumesii, Besnart Simunchembu Kangalu, Tamara Billima-Mulenga, and Luciana Debenedetti



“The government expects a presentation of the findings in nine days,” we heard over a video call from one of our in-country staff members in Mexico City. He was referring to the results of the RECOVR (Research for Effective COVID-19 Response) survey, an effort we started in April in order to put IPA’s expertise at policymakers’ disposal to support them in their pandemic response.

By Annie Chumpitaz Torres and Besnart Simunchembu Kangalu
Editor’s Note: Annie Chumpitaz Torres is Head of Monitoring and Strategic Evaluation at the Ministry of Education in Peru. Besnart Simunchembu Kangalu is Principal Planning and Policy Officer at the Ministry of General Education in Zambia.


(Editor's note: The title of this post has been updated.)
IPA pursues many strategies to move evidence to policy impact, but one that engenders particularly meaningful partnerships is to work from within governments, whether through embedding staff within government offices or facilitating the institutionalization of an “evidence unit” within a ministry. For example:

