Women’s economic empowerment has reemerged as a top priority for policymakers as a development objective in its own right as well as a means to spur greater economic growth in developing economies.As a result, M&E practitioners and researchers are grappling with how to measure a concept as complex as women and girls’ empowerment in impact evaluations.

Peacebuilding programming and policy is based on assumptions about how development interventions can contribute to peace, but little research has been done to rigorously test these theories of change.From October 22-26, IPA and J-PAL staff participated in and presented at the Alliance for Peacebuilding's Annual Conference and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Solutions Forum in Washington, DC in order to engage practitioners and policymakers in thinking about how to produce and use evidence for peace. On October 22, IPA Peace & Recovery Program Director Sebastian Chaskel participated in a panel on impact evaluations and randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

On October 22, IPA hosted a dissemination event titled: "Addressing Child Labor through Livelihood Promotion: An Impact Evaluation of the Department of Labor and Employment's Livelihood Assistance to Parents of Child Laborers." Dr.Eric Edmonds presented the results of his and Dr.Caroline Theoharides' evaluation of the Department of Labor and Employment's livelihood assistance to parents of child laborers.