The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women and girls globally, widening existing inequalities in livelihoods, burden of care, schooling, and violence.Designing social policies to mitigate these impacts and support educational opportunities for girls—including to help them return to school and strengthen the skills they need to succeed in the workforce—is critical to post-pandemic economic recovery and gender equality.To understand the extent of these issues, and to shed light on the pandemic’s particularly hidden impacts on vulnerable girls, policymakers have needed data and evidence.

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.