Innovations for Poverty Action

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We discover and promote effective solutions to global poverty problems.

We are a research and policy nonprofit that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems. We bring together researchers and decision-makers to design, rigorously evaluate, and refine these solutions and their applications — ensuring that the evidence created is used to improve lives. Since our founding in 2002, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) has worked with over 600 leading academics to conduct over 830 evaluations in 51 countries. Our research has informed hundreds of successful programs that have an impact on millions of individuals worldwide.

10/09/2026

As mEducation expands its reach this school year, we geared up our Schools Division Office (SDO) partners to strengthen their capacity to deliver phone-based remediation to more learners.

Through a series of online and in-person training, more than 790 teachers across 420 schools from our current SDO partners were introduced to the mEducation program and equipped with practical skills to use its learning tools, navigate the monitoring system, and carry out key implementation processes in their respective divisions.

This year’s partners include:

📍 Butuan City
📍 Himamaylan
📍 Marinduque
📍 Puerto Princesa City
📍 Zamboanga Sibugay
📍 Dinagat Islands
📍 Victorias City

As more education teams adopt these learning support approaches, we look forward to supporting our DepEd Philippines partners in putting research-based strategies into practice and reaching more learners who need support in foundational mathematics.

We thank our partner teachers, school heads, SDO leadership and personnel who actively engaged in the training and continue to make learning recovery a shared effort.

Learn more about mEducation: https://poverty-action.org/mEducation

10/08/2026

At the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, IPA partnered with Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction to host a side event titled “Beyond Assistance: Reducing Poverty, Advancing Protection and Building Shared Prosperity.”
The event brought together senior government officials, development partners, donors, and researchers to discuss how humanitarian assistance can better support long-term recovery, poverty reduction, and economic opportunities.

Speakers included:
➜ Dr. Bernard Doro, Nigeria's Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction
➜ Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs
➜ Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, Nigeria's Minister of Women Affairs
➜ Mohamed Yahya, representing UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed
➜ Ugochi Daniels, Deputy Director General for Operations at the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

IPA facilitated two panel discussions. Nessa Kenny, Associate Program Director for IPA's Peace and Recovery Program, moderated a discussion on linking humanitarian assistance to longer-term development. Emeka Eluemunor, IPA's Regional Director for West Africa, led a second discussion on improving coordination among organizations and institutions working on social protection.

The discussions highlighted the importance of connecting immediate humanitarian assistance with longer-term efforts to reduce poverty and expand economic opportunities.

Read more: https://poverty-action.org/beyond-assistance-nigeria-unga-81

10/01/2026

IPA and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) are inviting refugee-led organisations (RLOs) to apply for an Evidence Use Incubator taking place in Kampala, Uganda, from December 1-2, 2026.

Organised under the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative and supported by the IKEA Foundation, this two-day incubator will help RLOs understand the value of evidence in programme design, assess and strengthen their theory of change, learn where to find relevant evidence, and explore how to apply evidence from other contexts to their own programmes, advocacy, and fundraising.

If you are a refugee-led organisation based in East Africa interested in building evidence and learning into your work, apply by Friday, October 23 to join us in Kampala! Selected organisations will be informed in November.

Apply now: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCNVoV36gKPu_fWRosu75TeXyy1anX0t180dhh7TFOKptNXA/viewform

Learn more about the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative: bit.ly/ipadli

10/01/2026

IPA is heading to Bangkok for the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Forum 2026!

Our Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Initiative and Human Trafficking Research Initiative (HTRI) teams will join researchers, practitioners, funders, and policymakers from around the world to share evidence and lessons on preventing violence against women and children.

At the Forum, HTRI will lead a discussion on supporting research on sexual violence and human trafficking from a donor perspective.

Our IPV team will share work on measuring technology-facilitated gender-based violence, adapting and scaling the Becoming One IPV prevention program, and lessons from working with the Government of Peru to scale digital approaches to IPV prevention.

We’re also co-leading “The Future of Edutainment for Violence Prevention: Evidence, Innovation, and Scale,” a side event with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre (RWAMREC), and No Violence At Home (NOVAH).

Will you be at forum? Let us know in the comments or reach out if you’d like to connect with our teams in Bangkok.

Important links in the comments.

09/26/2026

From September 29–30, IPA will take part in the Global Graduation Symposium in Kampala, Uganda, led by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. The symposium brings together partners and practitioners to discuss the evidence, experience, and future of the Graduation Approach.

Evidence from multiple countries shows that Graduation programs can generate sustained improvements in household income, consumption, savings, assets, food security, and women's empowerment. In Uganda, IPA has evaluated Graduation-inspired programs serving refugee and host communities, microenterprise programs, and livelihoods programs.

IPA's evaluation of Raising the Village's livelihoods program found that, three years after the program began, household income increased by 26 percent, monthly consumption by 10 percent, and non-land wealth by 31 percent.

IPA will join partners at the Symposium to share this evidence and discuss what comes next for Graduation programming at scale.

BRAC, Village Enterprise

09/24/2026

Recently, IPA partnered with the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) at the 2026 Gender and Inclusion Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, themed “From Agenda to Action: Making Innovations Count for the Last Mile.”

As part of the partnership, IPA hosted a learning workshop, “Evidence to Action: Unlocking Access to Credit and Capital for Women-Owned Businesses in Nigeria,” bringing together key sector stakeholders to examine evidence and practical pathways for unlocking women’s access to credit and capital.

The session provided an opportunity to connect research with policy and practice, while exploring how evidence can inform more responsive solutions for women-owned businesses.

Learn more: https://poverty-action.org/ipa-nigeria-hosts-learning-workshop-pic-gender-and-inclusion-summit-2026

09/23/2026

This September, IPA joins the Philippine Institute For Development Studies (PIDS) in celebrating the 24th Development Policy Research Month.

This year’s theme, “Building Strong Institutions, Unlocking Human Capital Potential” (Matatag na Institusyon, Maunlad na Yamang Tao), looks beyond macroeconomic growth. It highlights the importance of stronger institutions and sustained investments in people to drive long-term, inclusive development.

IPA believes rigorous evidence has an important role to play in this effort. Generating evidence and working alongside policymakers and partners to bring research into decision-making can help inform policies and programs that respond to people’s needs and deliver meaningful results.

IPA’s partnership with PIDS, including its work on the Philippine Socioeconomic Panel Survey (PSPS), is one way the two organizations are building the evidence needed to support better policy decisions.

What will it take to build stronger institutions that enable people and communities to reach their full potential? Share your thoughts in the comments.

09/22/2026

When students fall behind, keeping up can become even harder as the curriculum moves ahead. But helping them catch up may not always require a classroom. Sometimes, a mobile phone can make a difference. According to a new paper in Nature led by researcher Noam Angrist, Filipino learners saw the biggest gains from a mobile tutoring intervention built to help learners catch up on foundational math skills.

The paper studied a mobile tutoring program tested across five countries to improve students’ math skills. The program, ConnectEd, was developed by Youth Impact and combines phone calls from teachers with text messages containing math questions matched to each student’s learning level over eight weeks.

In the Philippines, the program is known as mEducation and was implemented and evaluated by IPA Philippines alongside DepEd Philippines and Youth Impact.

The results:

➜ Filipino students saw the strongest gains among the five countries studied, with a 13 percentage point increase in students reaching the highest skill level.

➜ Students learned about three times as much as in the typical successful education program, a rare result as more than half of 150+ programs reviewed don't improve learning at all.

➜ At roughly USD 11 (PHP 690) per student, the program delivered 3.6 years of high-quality schooling for every USD 100 (PHP 6,280) spent, among the 10 most cost-effective of 150+ programs reviewed.

➜ Government teachers matched NGO staff on learning gains, and the Philippines' government-run version produced some of the biggest gains in the study.

IPA Philippines is now working with partners, including DepEd, to scale mEducation nationwide. In 2026, it was also named one of the top 100 impactful and scalable education innovations worldwide by HundrED’s Global Collection.

Read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10990-x

Learn more about mEducation: https://poverty-action.org/mEducation

09/22/2026

IPA Philippines joined the Independent Evaluation Unit of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at the Evidence Marketplace during the Asian Evaluation Week earlier this month at the Headquarters.

Our booth, “What Works, Pilipinas?” explored what evaluations in the Philippines tell us about what works and how that evidence can be put into practice effectively. IPA highlighted its work on the evaluation of the Graduation Approach, done in partnership with ADB, BRAC, and the Department of Labor and Employment - DOLE, which found a more cost-effective model for implementation. Now supporting the national government to scale it, IPA’s work is a testament to how generating and using evidence well can drive impact at scale.

Read more here: https://poverty-action.org/productive-asset-transfers-and-coaching-can-improve-livelihoods-people-extreme-poverty-philippines

The Evidence Marketplace gave evaluators, program implementers, and other organizations a creative, enabling space to exchange knowledge and learn from one another. IPA thanks ADB for its partnership and looks forward to more opportunities to advance evidence-based practice together.

09/21/2026

IPA is joining the Government of Nigeria at for discussions on how countries can better respond to crises, strengthen social protection, and reduce poverty.

The event will feature a keynote from H.E. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and remarks from the UN Deputy Secretary-General.

Emeka Eluemunor, IPA's Regional Director for West Africa, will moderate "One Poverty Response," on how governments and partners can better coordinate social protection and economic inclusion programs, building on IPA's work with the Nigerian government to use data and evidence to improve social protection and poverty reduction programs.

September 24 | 6-8 p.m. EDT | United Nations Headquarters, New York

We'll be sharing insights from the discussion. Look out for more in the coming days.

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