Innovations for Poverty Action

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is an American non-profit research and policy organization founded in 2002 by economist Dean Karlan.[1] Since its foundation, IPA has worked with over 400 leading academics to conduct over 600 evaluations in 51 countries.[2] The organization also manages the Progress out of Poverty Index.[3]

Innovations for Poverty Action
Founded2002
FounderDean Karlan
TypeResearch into poverty alleviation and development programs
FocusProgram Evaluation in areas such as Microfinance
Public Health
Agriculture
Education
Location
Area served
Global
Key people
Dean Karlan, Annie Duflo
Websitepoverty-action.org

IPA conducts randomized controlled trials (RCTs), along with other types of quantitative research, to measure the impacts of development programs in sectors including microfinance, education, health, peace & recovery, governance, agriculture, social protection, and small and medium enterprises.[4] Its partner organizations include over 400 governments, nonprofits, academic institutions, foundations, and companies.

History and Mission

IPA was founded in 2002 by Dean Karlan, an economist at Yale University.[5] The organization is dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global poverty and "bridging the gap between academia and development policy."[6][7]

IPA is headquartered in New Haven, CT and has offices in New York, Washington, D.C. as well as offices in Africa, Asia and South America.[8] As of 2017, the organization has conducted studies in 51 countries throughout the world.[8]

In 2017, IPA and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab received a $16 million grant from the UK Department for International Development to research policies that promote peace and support communities in areas recovering from conflict.[9]

Activities

IPA conducts controlled, randomized studies of aid programs. Their studies are conducted in much the same matter as scientific studies to determine the impact of such programs and find effective methods for reducing poverty.[8]

IPA's evaluations assess interventions in the areas of small and medium enterprises, financial inclusion, peace and recovery, governance, health, education, agriculture, and social protection.[10]

As of 2017, IPA had designed and conducted more than 650 evaluations[8] in partnership with over 400 leading academics. IPA also works to ensure that decision-makers use and apply evidence by making it useful and accessible. IPA does this through collaborating with decision-makers while creating policy-relevant evidence, proactive sharing of results, and providing technical assistance to applying solutions at scale.[11]

Partners

IPA works with more than 400 nonprofit organizations, governments, academic institutions, and companies to design programs and conduct evaluations.[11]

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a close partner of IPA.[12][13] The two organizations share a common mission and take similar methodological approaches to development policy evaluation. Both organizations have pioneered the use of randomized evaluations to study the effectiveness of development interventions worldwide and have collaborated extensively on field studies involving randomized evaluations. IPA and J-PAL attempt to bridge the gap between research and the policy world by creating and disseminating knowledge about what works to policymakers and practitioners around the world.

Other partners

IPA has a number of other partners including the World Bank, various agencies of the United Nations, a number of national and regional governments such as the government of Sierra Leone, and a number of charities that collaborate with IPA in the design and evaluation of their programs, such as Save the Children, Population Services International, One Acre Fund, and Pratham.[14]

Funding

IPA seeks funding from both individuals and foundations.

Foundation and organization funding

The IPA has been funded by a number of foundations and other non-profits. These include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,[15][16][17] Omidyar Network, Citi Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Mulago Foundation,[18] Ford Foundation, World Bank, USAID, DFID, and many others. A number of universities and think tanks have also funded IPA and its projects, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University.

Research

IPA's research spans eight programs: agriculture, education, financial inclusion, governance, health, peace and recovery, small and medium enterprises, and social protection. The results of IPA studies have been published by IPA research affiliates in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Econometrica, Science, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, World Development, American Economic Review, Journal of Economics Perspectives, Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Review of Financial Studies, among others.[19]

Method

IPA uses randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in its approach to anti-poverty research. RCTs are primarily known for their application in medical research to isolate the impact of a particular pharmaceutical or treatment from other factors. As in these medical trials, researchers assign participants at random to different study groups. One or more groups receive a program (the “treatment groups”) and another group serves as the comparison (or “control”) group. Though there are critiques to the randomized approach, its use in the social sciences is growing. Critics have included notable development economists such as Angus Deaton and Daron Acemoglu.[20]

Microfinance

IPA performs many evaluations of microfinance programs and products, including microcredit, microsavings, and microinsurance. IPA is part of the Financial Access Initiative (FAI), a consortium launched with the support of a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of increasing knowledge about microfinance and communicating research lessons to a broad spectrum of policy-makers, microfinance institutions, and the public at large.

An example of IPA's research on microfinance includes examinations of the impact of group liability. Many microcredit programs are offered to groups of women who share "group liability," meaning that all members of the group are responsible for repaying the loans if one of the members defaults. Group liability has been promoted by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus as the best way to ensure high repayment rates.[21] IPA studies conducted in a variety of countries show that switching existing clients to individual liability does not increase default rates, however. Further, IPA studies demonstrate that microcredit does not have a transformative impact on poverty, but that it can give low-income households more freedom in optimizing the ways they make money, consume, and invest.[22]

Agriculture

IPA's agriculture research evaluates whether interventions aimed at increasing or protecting farm income are effective. This research has included projects that examine the impact of crop prices,[23][24] rainfall insurance, fertilizer use,[25] and access to export markets.[26][27]

External reviews

GiveWell review

In November 2011, charity evaluator GiveWell published a review of IPA[28] and listed it among six standout organizations[29] along with GiveDirectly, KIPP (Houston branch), Nyaya Health, Pratham, and Small Enterprise Foundation but below the two top-rated charities Against Malaria Foundation and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative.

The Life You Can Save

The advocacy and education outreach organization, The Life You Can Save, founded after of the release of the Peter Singer book The Life You Can Save, rates IPA as a trusted charity backed by evidence.[30]

See also

References
  1. "ImpactSpace". impactspace.com. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  2. "Nonprofit (New Haven): Innovations for Poverty Action". idealist.org. Archived from the original on 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  3. "The Progress Out Of Poverty Index: A Detailed Analysis of MFI Implementation" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-01-21.
  4. "Unrated Profile for Innovations for Poverty Action". Charity Navigator. Archived from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  5. "The devil's in the data: Innovations for Poverty Action of New Haven evaluates programs around the globe". New Haven Register. Archived from the original on 2012-03-12.
  6. "History". Innovations for Poverty Action. Archived from the original on 2015-10-01. Retrieved 2012-08-14.
  7. "Renowned economists launch Global Poverty Research Lab". Northwestern Now. news.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  8. "New Haven organization, founded by Yale prof, tests best ways to reduce global poverty". New Haven Register. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  9. "IPA and J-PAL Announce $16 Million Grant From UK Government to Fund New Research on Solutions to Challenges in Governance, Crime and Conflict, and Peace and Recovery". ReliefWeb. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  10. "Sectors". Innovations for Poverty Action. 2015-08-06. Archived from the original on 2012-09-03.
  11. "Our Partners". Innovations for Poverty Action. Archived from the original on 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
  12. "Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) (partner page with list of joint projects)". Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30.
  13. "Abudl Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (partner page with list of joint projects)". Innovations for Poverty Action. Archived from the original on 2012-01-18.
  14. "Partners (multiple page navigation)". Innovations for Poverty Action. Archived from the original on 2012-08-31.
  15. "Innovations for Poverty Action (2011 grant)". Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
  16. "Innovations for Poverty Action (2010 grant)". Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
  17. "Innovations for Poverty Action (2009 grant)". Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
  18. "Innovations for Poverty Action (profile page)". Mulago Foundation. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25.
  19. "Publications". Innovations for Poverty Action. Archived from the original on 2016-03-20.
  20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-09-17. Retrieved 2010-09-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2010-12-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Group vs. Individual Liability in the Philippines
  22. "Where Credit is Due | Innovations for Poverty Action". www.poverty-action.org. June 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-10-02. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
  23. Dean Karlan, Ed Kutsoati, Margaret McMillan, Chris Udry. "Crop Price Indemnified Loans for Farmers:A Pilot Experiment in Rural Ghana" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-28.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. "Project page: Examining Effects of Crop Price Insurance for Farmers in Ghana". Innovations for Poverty Action. 2015-04-22. Archived from the original on 2011-04-27.
  25. Esther Duflo; Michael Kremer; Jonathan Robinson. "Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya". Archived from the original (pdf) on 2010-03-06.
  26. Nava Ashraf; Xavier Giné; Dean Karlan. "Finding Missing Markets (and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya" (PDF). Innovations for Poverty Action, Financial Access Initiative. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-27.
  27. "Project page: Finding Missing Markets: An Agricultural Brokerage Intervention in Kenya". Innovations for Poverty Action. 2015-04-22. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  28. GiveWell official review of IPA Archived 2012-05-21 at the Wayback Machine
  29. GiveWell list of top-rated charities Archived 2012-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
  30. "Publications". The Life You Can Save. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24.
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