Partnering with governments on research projects is a great way to ensure buy-in to rigorous research from policymakers, but it comes with a unique challenge: those policymakers can change due to political transition or staff turnover in the middle of a study. When that happens, what does that mean for the research? Months of organizational planning typically go into a research project, and the prospect of blowing it up and doing something new can be daunting. In this blog post, we discuss IPA Mexico’s experience working through a political transition and what it’s taught us about how to...
Rodrigo Canales, Mushfiq Mobarak
November 20, 2019
Media Coverage
July 25, 2019
The Dhaka Tribune recaps a roundtable in which IPA Bangladesh Country Director, Dr. Mohammad Ashraful Haque, presented baseline findings of a survey on adolescent well-being, assessing mental, physical, and sexual/reproductive health as well as educational and economic development. The survey also noted the role of violence in the everyday lives of Dhaka adolescents, finding: 68% of married adolescents experience intimate partner violence, 82% of adolescents report experiencing corporal punishment at school, and 62% of female caregivers use physical punishment to discipline underage family...
June 18, 2019
“Our obsession is our citizens’ lives,” said Jairo García, Secretary of Security of Bogotá, at a recent panel I moderated on citizen security policy in Latin America sponsored by IPA’s Peace and Recovery Program and J-PAL’s Crime and Violence Sector at the America Latina Crime and Policy Network (AL CAPONE) annual meeting at EAFIT University in Medellín last month. “But citizens’ obsession is with muggings,” Secretary García went on, as he explained that while Bogotá’s citizens rank security as a top concern, whether they feel safe is more closely related to their perception of...
Media Coverage
May 28, 2019
The Economist reports on an experimental program aiming to reduce Chicago's murder rate by providing high-risk men with job training and therapy on de-escalating and avoiding violence. The program applies findings from an IPA study in Liberia on the impacts of cognitive behavioral therapy and cash grants to combat violence and crime among street youth.
[Note: article may be gated].
Media Coverage
September 18, 2018
While many cash transfer studies report outcomes over the first several years, Vox reports on IPA returning to study how Ugandan cash beneficiaries fared nine years later. Christopher Blattman describes, how he, with Nathan Fiala and Sebastian Martinez, found that their conclusions changed when discovering the comparison group caught up to the cash recipients in the long run.
Media Coverage
July 18, 2018
Devex reports on the Governance, Conflict, and Crime Initiative (GCCI), a joint IPA and J-PAL initiative that was granted funding through the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). GCCI's goal is to support RCTs piloted through IPA and J-PAL to generate much-needed evidence on solutions to conflict and corruption, particularly in fragile states. Devex outlines some of these pilot evaluations and key takeaways from a London event in early June.
Media Coverage
March 28, 2018
Mother Jones covers recent discussion on the long term effects of cash transfers, including Chris Blattman's reflections on a study he and other IPA-affiliated researchers conducted with IPA in Uganda.
Press Release
December 06, 2017
New Haven, CT / Cambridge, MA – Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), two research centers working to support evidence-informed policymaking, were jointly awarded a grant of GBP£12 million (US$16 million) from the UK Department for International Development to generate new research on effective policies to promote peace and good governance, reduce crime, and support individuals and communities recovering from conflict.
The grant, approved in December 2016 and signed in August 2017, contributes to three research programs:
IPA’...Announcement
August 15, 2017
The Peace & Recovery (P&R) Program at Innovations for Poverty Action is launching its first request for proposals, through an Expression of Interest (EOI) Form available now. Expressions of Interest are due on September 15, 2017.
The P&R Program is designed to support field experiments and related research in several broad areas:
Reducing violence and promoting peace Reducing “fragility” (i.e. fostering state capability and institutions of decision-making) Preventing, coping with, and recovering from crises (focusing on conflict, but also including non-conflict...
Media Coverage
May 13, 2016
In the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog, Rachel Glennerster reviews what we know about how societies recover after war in light of IPA's new findings. She covers the new research, and why it's critical to understand how to heal societies after war.
Media Coverage
May 13, 2016
Reuters reports on the new research from IPA in Sierra Leone on community reconciliation after war came at a cost:
While forgiveness toward perpetrators increased, the prevalence of severe trauma among the participants was more than a third higher than among those who didn't take part in the project, said the study, published in the journal Science.
Media Coverage
May 13, 2016
Pacific Standard covers IPA's research on the benefits and tolls of post-war reconciliation in Sierra Leone.
Media Coverage
May 13, 2016
Voice of America interviews IPA researcher Oeindrila Dube about the new research from Sierra Leone in Science and its implications for the design of post-war reconciliation programs. The story also appeared in the New Delhi Times.
Press Release
May 12, 2016
NEW HAVEN, May 13, 2016 — Civil wars divide nations along social, economic and political lines, often pitting neighbors against each other. In the aftermath of civil wars, many countries undertake truth and reconciliation efforts to restore social cohesion, but little has been known about whether these programs reach their intended goals. A new study published in Science today suggests reconciliation programs promote societal healing, but that these gains come at the cost of reduced psychological health, worsening depression, anxiety, and trauma.
“Our research suggests that talking...
Media Coverage
January 29, 2016
NPR's Hidden Brain podcast featured IPA Sierra Leone's project on reconciliation and forgiveness. PI Oeindrila Dube explains the RCT and potential hidden costs of programs such as this.
