IPA Uganda Co-Hosts Embedded Lab Co-Creation Workshop with the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development
Officials from MGLSD and IPA at the Lab’s first co-creation workshop. © 2025 Carolyne Atuhura
IPA’s Embedded Evidence Labs program supports governments in institutionalizing the use of data and evidence in policymaking processes. This enables governments to develop data-driven and evidence-based policies and programs.
On August 14-15, 2025, IPA co-hosted a two-day workshop with the Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) to agree on the design of a new Embedded Evidence Lab within the Ministry. A select team of MGLSD senior officials reflected on the ministry’s policy, research, and evidence priorities, and discussed how the Lab can strengthen data use, evidence generation and uptake, and institutional learning.
Discussions focused on the Lab’s structure, learning cycle, and services, with inspiration drawn from IPA’s experience of establishing an embedded evidence lab within the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports, and a similar Lab in the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) in Peru. Participants explored opportunities to strengthen collaboration across departments to improve data systems and build internal capacity for evidence-based decision-making.
The workshop concluded with a shared commitment to advancing the operationalization of the Lab, fostering stronger coordination across stakeholders, and ensuring that data and research are consistently used to inform policy and programming within the Ministry.