Northwestern on COVID's Impact in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Media Coverage
July 30, 2021

Northwestern Univesity expands on results from a paper in February 2021 on the economic impact of COVID-19 in nine lower- and middle-income countries. Overall, findings showed the pandemic took a significant toll on key livelihood outcomes—including food security, employment, and domestic violence—across several LMICs and that the economic shock will have long-term consequences. Dean Karlan and Chris Udry discuss the challenges of developing the phone surveys used in the study and how this data can be used to determine a path forward. For example, emergency cash transfers in Togo were...
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RECOVR Roundup Vol. 21: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
July 29, 2021

In this twenty-first installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis Uganda: What Role Does Trust in Institutions Play in Public...
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RECOVR Roundup Vol. 20: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
July 15, 2021

In this twentieth installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis Colombia: A broad emergency cash assistance program helped...
a2i center, Rajbari, Bangladesh
Are Mobile Payments Reaching Men and Women Equally? Latest Findings on How G2P Payments Are Working in Bangladesh
July 07, 2021

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of posts about adapting an ongoing policy project about digital payments with Bangladesh’s government to the current COVID-19 crisis. While the characters in this article, Kamala and her daughter, are fictional, their experience is based on that of many women IPA interviewed in our latest monitoring survey.
 

Mobile money clients outside an a2i center in Rajabari, Bangladesh. Photo: UNSGSA/Ismael Ferdous.


Kamala is walking home after buying food for her family with money she received through a government social...
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RECOVR Roundup Vol. 19: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
July 01, 2021

In this ninteenth installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis Middle East and North Africa: The Impact of COVID-19 on Livelihoods...
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RECOVR Roundup Vol. 18: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
June 17, 2021

In this eighteenth installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis Ghana: The Impact of COVID-19 on Children’s Learning and...
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RECOVR Roundup Vol. 17: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
June 03, 2021

In this seventeenth installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis India: How did migrant workers recover after lockdown?

As...
Togo First on Study Using Data to Better Deliver Cash Aid
Media Coverage
May 26, 2021

Togo First covers an IPA study that uses satellite and phone data to target emergency cash assistance aimed at helping Togo households recover from the impact of COVID-19. Researcher Josh Blumenstock describes how the study identified more vulnerable residents as priority beneficiaries.
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RECOVR Roundup Vol. 16: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
May 20, 2021

In this sixteenth installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenya: Digital Fraud Risk During COVID-19

...
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RECOVR Roundup Vol. 15: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
May 06, 2021

In this fifteenth installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis Bangladesh: Digital and traditional safety-net transfers in the...
BBC Podcast: Getting Cash to Vulnerable People in Togo
Media Coverage
April 30, 2021

The BBC People Fixing the World podcast (Apple) goes over how new research pairing satellite and phone data with machine learning is helping the government of Togo to get cash to people hit hard by the COVID crisis. They speak with research Josh Blumenstock about how it works.
In Project Syndicate, the Ultrapoor Graduation Model and What's Needed Now
Media Coverage
April 30, 2021

BRAC's Lindsay Coates & J-PAL's John Floretta reflect in Project Syndicate on the need for evidence-based poverty solutions in the time of COVID-19. The article cites IPA's research on Ultra-Poor Graduation programs in Ghana, Honduras, India, Pakistan, and Peru. Following the six-country randomized controlled trials, the evaluation is being scaled to reach millions around the world.
Figure 1: Communities contacted in COVID-19 survey, July 2020
RECOVR Roundup Vol. 14: Social Protection in the Time of COVID-19
April 22, 2021

In this fourteenth installment of our RECOVR Roundup series, we are sharing new findings and analysis from the RECOVR Research Hub and from our partner organizations, as well as links on what is happening in the Social Protection landscape in response to COVID-19. Read the previous installment if you missed it, and sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to receive this roundup series directly to your inbox. 

As always, we encourage you to write to our team with ideas for features.

New Findings & Analysis Peru: In the Amazon, detailed data reveal new patterns of COVID-19’...
Zambia RECOVR 2 Timeline
Mitigating the Impacts of COVID-19 in Zambia: Insights from RECOVR 2
April 20, 2021

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. This blog post summarizes the main findings of the survey in Zambia and policy recommendations. Click here for the blog for Rwanda.

In both countries, there are pockets of progress, including continued adherence to certain virus mitigation measures and promising acceptance rates for vaccinations. Education remains a key concern for parents of...
Rwanda RECOVR Survey timeline
The Reach of the COVID-19 Crisis in Rwanda: Lessons from Round 2 of the RECOVR Survey
April 20, 2021

As part of IPA’s ongoing RECOVR survey, we recently held a webinar with the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network highlighting key results of the second round of the surveys in Zambia and Rwanda. This blog post summarizes the main findings of the survey in Rwanda and policy recommendations. Click here for the blog for Zambia.

In both countries, there are pockets of progress with continued adherence to certain virus mitigation measures and promising acceptance rates for vaccinations. Education remains a key concern for parents of learners, with the prospect of potential learning losses....

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