Our Approach to Impact

At IPA, our impact is the real-world change our evidence creates. Although it would be great to evaluate ourselves with a randomized trial (ironic, we know), we can’t. What we can do, and do rigorously, is track how our work contributes to changes in programs, policies, systems, and global debates.

Every success is achieved with our partners—governments, NGOs, researchers, funders, and communities—who are essential to turning evidence into action. Together, we’re changing how the world addresses poverty.

Over the past two decades, our research has directly informed programs now reaching hundreds of millions of people. These include:

• Pay-for-performance programs improving learning outcomes in Rwanda
• Differentiated Learning approaches enhancing education in Ghana
• Social signaling interventions increasing immunization rates in Sierra Leone
• Couples’ counseling reducing intimate partner violence in Uganda and Kenya
• Graduation programs reducing poverty in Rwanda, Nigeria, Uganda, the Philippines, and other parts of the world.

We’ve also helped shape how governments make decisions. Through our Embedded Evidence Labs, we’re co-creating tools, systems, and processes with Ministries across 16 countries to integrate data and evidence into everyday policymaking. This work supports adaptive, locally driven, and sustained improvements in how governments serve their citizens.

Beyond individual programs or systems, our evidence has influenced some of the biggest global debates—on microcredit, cash transfers, and free bednets for malaria, helping decision-makers reimagine what’s possible and where to invest.

Many of our contributions are visible, but others are more difficult to track. When high-quality evidence is released into the world, it moves, sometimes quietly, into the hands of those who need it. Organizations don’t often cite academic papers when launching a new program, and that’s okay. We’re not in it for the credit, we’re in it to improve the lives of people living in poverty.

How We Create Impact

Our Theory of Change is grounded in the belief that evidence changes lives only when the right conditions are in place. Producing high-quality research is essential, but not enough. Sharing evidence without the right timing, audience, or support won't lead to action. So we go further.

Our strategy rests on three pillars:

1. Create strong evidence – We conduct rigorous research—impact evaluations, diagnostics, sector-wide learning agendas—co-created with local partners to ensure relevance and use. We also strengthen research ecosystems to enable long-term evidence generation where it’s needed most.
2. Share evidence strategically – We synthesize and communicate findings in ways that matter to decision-makers. That means translating complex research into accessible, actionable insights and sharing them through the right channels, at the right time.
3. Equip decision-makers to use evidence – We help governments and organizations integrate data and evidence into their decision-making. Through long-term partnerships, technical assistance, and capacity building, we support institutional change—not just better programs, but better systems.

Through this approach, we pursue two main pathways to impact:

• Scaling what works – We support partners to use evidence to design, implement, and institutionalize high-impact programs.
• Transforming systems – We embed the use of evidence into institutional processes so that data-informed decisions become standard practice.

Join us in building a world where evidence drives decisions that improve lives.