On January 19-21, 2012, Innovations for Poverty Action and Strathmore University hosted a three day workshop for approximately 20 African researchers on experimental research design in savings and payments.Participants traveled from 9 countries across Africa to participate in the Nairobi event, which was the first of a series of workshops to be conducted by IPA over the coming three years as part of the Savings and Payments Research Fund, under the Financial Inclusion Program.The workshop focused on both the conceptual and practical aspects of designing a rigorous field experiment in the area of savings and payments.

University of California, Washington Center 1608 Rhode Island Ave, NW Washington, DC 20036 (map) 9:00 am - 12:30 pm Which programs work to improve educational outcomes?  Education experts from UC San Diego, Harvard, University of Texas, and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) will share the results from rigorous evaluations of education programs in India and Africa.

The SME Initiative hosted its First Annual Conference on Entrepreneurship and SME Development on November 30, 2011.Co-hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund, this event brought together over 130 researchers, practitioners and policymakers focused on entrepreneurship and SMEs in emerging markets.Presentations on past and ongoing research studies covered a range of topics related to access to managerial human capital, access to finance, and job creation with evidence from a number of countries, including Ghana, India, Mexico, Peru and Sri Lanka.