Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), in collaboration with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction (FMHAPR), launched the National Poverty Intelligence Lab at a three-day workshop held in Abuja from June 24 to 26, 2026. The workshop brought together key stakeholders, including program implementers, to define how the Lab will operate as a central source of evidence for Nigeria's social protection programs.

The National Poverty Intelligence Lab—one of IPA’s Embedded Evidence Labs across 10 countries—is a joint effort between FMHAPR and IPA, where FMHAPR leads coordination of Nigeria's major social protection programs and hosts the Lab as a dedicated unit within its structure. The Lab is a dedicated unit within FMHAPR. The Lab responds to long-standing gaps in Nigeria's social protection system. Programs in cash transfers, livelihoods, food assistance, and youth employment operate across many agencies. Fragmented implementation, weak coordination between federal and state actors, limited integration of administrative and survey data, and inconsistent beneficiary targeting reduce their combined effect. The Lab is designed to embed data, analytics, and evidence generation directly into policy design and program delivery, connecting evidence to decision-making at national and subnational levels.

The Lab operates through a hub-and-spoke model. The national hub within FMHAPR integrates data, produces poverty analytics, and coordinates evidence across ministries and agencies. State-level Labs, beginning with the Kaduna State Poverty Graduation Lab within the Kaduna State Social Investment Programmes Agency (KADSIPA), conduct local research and feed insights back to the national hub. The Kaduna Lab, which supports Nigeria's first state-led Ultra-Poor Graduation Program, serves as the first working node in this model.

The Lab establishes the foundation for the One Humanitarian–One Poverty Response System (OHOPRS), the government's framework for aligning humanitarian, social protection, and economic inclusion efforts behind a single coordinated response. By giving policymakers a shared evidence base and a coordination platform, the Lab is intended to reduce duplication, improve targeting, and support pathways that move households from short-term assistance toward sustainable livelihoods.

From left to right; Valentine Ezulu, Director, FMHAPR; Funmi Ayeni, Country Director, IPA Nigeria; Dr. Bernard Doro, Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction; Henry Chukwu, Associate Director, Policy, IPA Nigeria. Photo credit: @NathOgbu