For the last few months, The GovLab, the Asia Foundation, BRAC Institute of Governance & Development Bangladesh, and The Centre for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia have sought to source the questions that data could answer toward transforming the way different societies govern themselves.On October 25, IPA presented at "Better Governance Strategies across Asia's Digital Divide: A 100 Governance Questions Initiative," an event hosted by The Asia Foundation to reflect on the questions identified and how to operationalize them leveraging new and traditional datasets.Nassreena Baddiri, IPA Philippines Country Director, presented as one of four panelists.

Social media data is emerging as a tool for consumer protection market monitoring in financial services (see IPA’s multi-country analysis of social media data here).In this webinar, held by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) on October 20, 2021 researchers Jonathan Fu and Mrinal Mishra shared how they are using machine learning to detect predatory or fraudulent FinTech apps.Utilizing FinTech app information and consumer reviews from the Google Play Store in India, Nigeria, and the Philippines, Fu and Mishra identify common traits that might indicate an app is likely to be a scam app and to build predictive models for improving vetting and monitoring moving forward.

Latin America is facing trying times.Economies across the region have witnessed an unprecedented increase in unemployment and the incidence of poverty, and gender disparities have widened.The design and implementation of social programs and policies to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic have been at the core of the public policy and academic debates in recent months.