IPA is partnering with the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF) to support the implementation of Tejiendo Caminos, a program designed to improve a range of outcomes for migrant and refugee families. Tejiendo Caminos aims to strengthen psychosocial well-being, foster social cohesion with host communities, and promote adequate physical care and nutrition practices throughout the migratory journey.

IPA is providing evidence-based technical assistance to strengthen early implementation of the program. IPA is equipping ICBF to strengthen monitoring tools, clarify how indicators can be defined and operationalized, and to ensure data collection processes are feasible, consistent, and aligned with program objectives.

IPA is partnering with the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá to support the Pagadiarios Strategy, an initiative aimed at identifying people living in daily-rental housing (pagadiarios) and supporting them by providing cash transfers and facilitating access to food, health, and education services. Due to a lack of a permanent address, pagadiarios are excluded from national social programs because they cannot register in SISBEN. This highly vulnerable population includes a significant number of Venezuelan migrants and children, making it a critical context for a two-generation approach that addresses the needs of both caregivers and young children. 

IPA is supporting the generation of rigorous evidence to strengthen and scale the Pagadiarios Strategy, which is one of the current administration’s flagship policies. IPA and researchers from the IDB and the University of California, San Diego will support the Mayor’s Office in implementing a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of the Pagadiarios Strategy on key well-being outcomes for both adults and children. IPA will also support the Mayor’s Office to ensure new data collection incorporates a refugee lens and a two-generation approach, enabling a better understanding of these populations and supporting the design of more targeted programs. The results of the study will help identify the most cost-effective ways to deliver services to this population, even in the absence of SISBEN registration, and inform a scalable, two-generation strategy to improve inclusion and well-being among some of Bogotá’s most at-risk residents.

IPA is partnering with the Patronato Municipal San José to strengthen the Patronato's capacity to use data and evidence in decision-making related to social policies and programs, particularly in early childhood and care within the Metropolitan District of Quito. Building on the Patronato's commitment to strengthening its data, monitoring, and learning systems, we are laying the foundation for an Embedded Evidence Lab to build the technical and organizational capacities for long-term, evidence-based decision-making. Our current partnership focuses on leveraging the opening of a new Child Development Center to pilot monitoring tools and innovations in service delivery, and on establishing a proof-of-concept learning process to build capabilities, routines, and an institutional roadmap for the Lab. The ultimate goal is to improve the effectiveness of current child development programs while advancing toward a sustainable, evidence-informed institutional transformation.

Access to early childhood education programs is limited in Uganda, and many existing programs lack sufficient quality and operate at high costs, among other issues. In response to these challenges, the Government of Uganda passed the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy, which aims to advance the delivery, financing, management, and coordination of holistic and integrated ECCE services. IPA is collaborating with the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) through our Embedded Lab in Uganda to co-create and implement a baseline study that assesses the quality of care and education provided in childcare centers, in addition to key questions around the costs, workforce, and sustainability of these centers. Through the baseline, we will take a multigenerational approach to childcare, and will also include household-level data collection to investigate caregivers’ perspectives, well-being, and caregiver dynamics in key strategic districts such as large refugee hosting districts. The results will inform the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework for the policy and government decision-making on ECCE policy implementation and ECCE quality assurance.