In the spirit of the Government of Côte d’Ivoire’s initiative to ensure higher levels of evaluation of public policies, IPA Francophone West Africa held a training session from April 4-8 for the Ivorian Ministry of Plan to foster an understanding of strong data systems and impact evaluation methodologies. 20 government entities hand-selected members of their technical team to join the week-long training.The IPA team shared key frameworks around monitoring, impact evaluations, and learnings with chief government officials and partners.

With the rate of domestic violence increasing in light of COVID-19, what is the role of state institutions, including the police, in preventing and responding to violence against women? On April 2, 2021, the second webinar in the Governance, Crime, and Conflict Initiative’s (GCCI) series discussed randomized evaluations funded by GCCI that address this question and its implications.Hosted by J-PAL’s Crime and Violence Initiative, Governance Initiative, and Innovations for Poverty Action’s (IPA) Peace & Recovery Program, this webinar series showcases emerging results and policy lessons from the first three years of GCCI.

This webinar was the second webinar in a series presenting innovative research on crime and violence in Latin America and the Caribbean.If you would like to receive updates via email on future webinars in this series, sign up for the series mailing list here.From Brazil to El Salvador, prison gangs have transformed the state’s disciplinary institutions into headquarters for their criminal activities.At the same time, they govern—providing order and physical safety for millions of low-income residents across vast informal peripheries neglected by governments.