New Haven, CT, USA:

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) today announced the appointment of Annie Duflo to the position of Executive Director. Ms. Duflo replaces Dean Karlan, who will remain as President of IPA.

Ms. Duflo’s appointment comes at a time of transition for IPA. The research organization began in 2002 as a small group of like-minded researchers, and has since become a global leader in the effort to evaluate anti-poverty programs and identify and scale those that truly help the world’s poor.  Today, IPA has more than 500 employees and more than $25 million in annual income. Ms. Duflo will provide the professional management and leadership necessary for an organization of IPA’s size and scope. With this appointment, Ms. Duflo will take over day-to-day operations and implementation of IPA’s strategic plan.

“As the outgoing Executive Director, I am thrilled with Annie’s appointment to this role,” says Mr. Karlan. “She has the skills, expertise, and vision to lead this organization as it enters its next phase, and I look forward to continuing to work with her to ensure that IPA continues to grow and to be a leader in the field.”

Prior to this appointment, Ms. Duflo served as IPA’s Vice President and Research Director, a role she held since 2008. During her tenure, IPA more than doubled its income, its field research staff and its network of research affiliates.

“Annie has made a major contribution to our research capacity,” says Delia Welsh, Managing Director at IPA. “We can run far more projects now at the same level of quality than we ever could because she thought through what we needed in terms of staff training and professional project management, and then put together the resources needed to accomplish it. That was all her.”

At IPA, Ms. Duflo has played a key role in scaling up programs that have been tested and proven to bring significant development impact. She made a major contribution to scaling up educational interventions in Ghana, among other achievements. In 2009, Ms. Duflo began working in Ghana to help the West African government adapt an education program pioneered by Indian education nonprofit Pratham. Together with former IPA board member Wendy Abt, Ms. Duflo brought together a group of stakeholders to convince the Ghanaian teachers union and the Ministry of Education to test the program there, and she engaged funders to support the effort. Due to her vision, advocacy, and fundraising, the Ghana’s Teacher Community Assistant Initiative launched in 2010.

“Annie has an amazing ability to get diverse groups of people with very different priorities and understandings of the project to work together, while never losing sight of the overall scientific objectives,” says Abhijit Banerjee, Professor of Economics at MIT, Director at JPAL and IPA Research Affiliate.

Kentaro Toyama, a researcher at UC Berkeley and IPA board member says, “Once in a while, you get a providential match between the person and the position. Annie’s appointment as Executive Director is just that. Her formal qualifications are a terrific fit, of course, but what impresses me is her ability to quickly establish both respect and rapport with the full range of people that IPA works with.”

Prior to joining IPA, Ms. Duflo was the Executive Director of the Centre for Microfinance (CMF) at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in Chennai, India, which she joined at its founding.  Ms. Duflo has also served as a consultant for the World Bank advising on the role of NGOs and MFIs in implementing a new health insurance scheme for poor households in India, and has also worked for two large NGOs, Seva Mandir and Pratham. Ms. Duflo holds a Master of Public Administration and International Development from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, a Diplôme d’études approfondies (Master) in Social Sciences from EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)/ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris, and two BA degrees, in German Studies and Philosophy, from University Paris X.