SEATTLE — “Innovations for Poverty Action” (IPA) is redefining what it means to be a global poverty nonprofit. IPA focuses on collecting data that allows the researchers to implement the most effective interventions and policies.
Dean Karlan founded IPA in 2002 in response to two problems he saw in global poverty reduction: firstly, there is a lack of evidence regarding poverty reduction interventions, and secondly, the evidence that does exist is not being used to implement effective interventions.
What is IPA’s methodology?
The solutions IPA saw often wasted money and prolonged conditions of poverty. The first step in creating effective solutions starts with research. IPA’s team of 575 researchers, experts in the field of global poverty from top universities, specializes in random controlled trials (RCTs) that allow the researchers to carefully examine the effects of a particular intervention in several contexts.
Some examples of IPA’s RCTs include researching the effects of access to mobile money in Kenya, providing financial advice in India and using text messages to improve knowledge regarding reproductive health in Ghana.
Creating and researching solutions for poverty reduction does not complete IPA’s mission. The second step for IPA is making sure their solutions are being implemented and that their research and data is available. IPA’s close relationship with decision-makers in various countries allow them to better address key research questions and share their data with their partners in governments, non-governmental organizations, for-profits and civil society.
IPA researchers also train their partners to interpret and use their data, while promoting the most effective solutions to issues of poverty.
Where does IPA do its work?
IPA works in 20 countries in East Africa, West Africa, Asia and Latin America. Researchers have evaluated 325 interventions for poverty issues in these countries and are currently evaluating 300 more interventions. With all these case studies, it is important to learn why evidence-based interventions are the most effective in reducing poverty.
Executive director of IPA Annie Duflo and Dean Karlan explain in their New York Times article why evidence and data are essential to implementing effective solutions. They explain that policy makers and social scientists often rely on anecdotal evidence or instincts to implement solutions. Duflo and Karlan emphasize that the only way to know if a solution will be successful for several people in various contexts is to perform rigorous RCTs.
RCTs are essential as often times, the solution that a researcher believes will be the most successful is actually the least successful. Furthermore, the results of RCTs allow researchers to analyze and ultimately ameliorate the root causes of many issues of poverty.
What are IPA’s ways for reducing poverty?
So what has IPA determined to be the most effective interventions for reducing poverty? Duflo and senior policy communications director Jeffrey Mosenkis reports 4 simple and surprising solutions that have been IPA-certified to work:
- Give cash to the poor.
- Implement innovative health-care delivery programs.
- Provide access to mobile money.
- Send out text-message reminders regarding health, finances and education.
IPA’s work does not strive to broadly eliminate global poverty. Through extensive research and data collection, IPA has become the largest implementer of RCTs in the field of international development. IPA’s evidence-based interventions have been proven to alleviate issues of poverty in 20 countries over 3 continents. If we can learn anything from IPA, it’s that evidence-based interventions are the future of alleviating global poverty.
– Christiana Lano
Photo: Flickr