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Our Mission

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a nonprofit organization that creates and evaluates approaches to solving development problems, and disseminates information about what works and what does not to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors around the world.

News and Announcements

  • IPA will evaluate Google initiative to serve needs of poor in Uganda
    Google.org blog - June 2009

    Google announces its first major initiative in Uganda, which makes available a suite of cell phone applications--including services to offer health and agriculture tips and a platform that helps buyers and sellers connect to one another--designed to serve the needs of the poor and increase access to information and communications technology.  Innovations for Poverty Action will conduct an accompanying social impact assessment to evaluate the outcomes of the project.

  • IPA Business Training Research in the News
    New York Times - June 2009

    Coupling business training with microloans is a practice that is growing in popularity.  This article cites an IPA study in Peru led by Dean Karlan and Martin Valdivia which found that the business training program improved outcomes for borrowers and surprisingly had a larger effect for those that expressed less interest in training at the outset of the program.

  • How to Save Smarter
    Parade Magazine - May 2009

    IPA Research Affiliate Jonathan Zinman is quoted in this Parade Magazine article about why Americans find it so difficult to save, drawing on behavioral theory.  Zinman cites the propensity of people to discount the impact of compound interest on today's savings as a reason why they don't save as much as they want to.

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Blog

June 30, 2009
Commentary
Chris Blattman's fun and games in Uganda

Fieldwork is not all fun and games, but that seems to be the recent experience for IPA Research Affiliate Chris Blattman's project evaluation, "Women's Income Generating Support (WINGS) Program" 

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June 30, 2009
Day in the Life
Request to share experiences in explaining evaluation

When we return to the US after months or years of working in the field, we often experience "reverse culture shock" - aspects of US culture seem surprising and unusual to us.  I felt this when explaining "What is IPA?" to family members and friends, and realized I needed an entirely new approach.

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