IPA-Zambia, in collaboration with the International Growth Centre (IGC) and Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ), hosted the public seminar “Incentives for Public Service Delivery” in Lusaka on March 17th, 2015.Oriana Bandeira from the London School of Economics presented results from the Community Health Worker study.The session was moderated by Professor Nava Ashraf from Harvard Business School.

Researchers Nava Ashraf and Oriana Bandeira presented results from the study Recruiting and Motivating Community Health Assistants in Zambia at multiple high-level governmental meetings in Lusaka, Zambia between March 16-20 2015.This included the following meetings: Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health’s Senior Management meeting.The meeting was chaired by Permanent Secretary Professor Chomba and attended by all Directors of departments at the Ministry. Cabinet office.This was attended by senior officials at the Cabinet including Permanent Secretaries at Public Service Management Division, Ministry of Labour and Management Development Division.

In collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India, the SME Initiative hosted a conference that brought researchers together with practitioners from the Indian banking sector to discuss innovative, scalable solutions to the challenges that MSMEs face in gaining access to finance.The day began with SME Initiative affiliates and other leading researchers in the field sharing evidence on effective approaches to SME financing including relationship banking and appropriate incentives for credit officers using credit scoring models.