2025 Annual Report
We discover and advance what works to improve the lives of people living in poverty
A Letter from Executive Director, Annie Duflo
Dear Partners and Friends,
Needless to say, 2025 was a rocky year for IPA, as it was for the development sector. It also marked the culmination of our 2025 Strategic Ambition. As we grappled with the immediate and longer-term consequences of significant cuts to foreign aid, we also looked back on what we have achieved and learned. The events of 2025 reinforced the belief that underlies our work: generating rigorous evidence is fundamental, but to improve lives at scale, evidence must be paired with strategic, long-term partnerships and systems change. This co-creation approach guides all of our work.
The aid crisis had two key implications for how we work. Low- and middle-income country (LMIC) governments are, more than ever, the primary drivers of development, and working with them to incorporate the use of data and evidence into systems in a lasting way has never been more critical. In a context of limited resources, the focus needs to be on scaling the most cost-effective approaches to solving problems. Both have been central to IPA’s work throughout our Strategic Ambition, and in 2025 we emphasized them further, as illustrated in this report. In this process, it became increasingly clear to us that both need to be thought about in tandem, as we shared in this blog series.
We think of our impact in two ways: when evidence-informed solutions are taken to scale; and when systems change occurs. In Rwanda, our long-standing collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Georgetown University's Initiative on Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de) illustrates both. In 2025 the Supporting Teacher Achievement in Rwandan Schools (STARS)—a pay-for-performance teacher contracting model—scaled to over 107,000 teachers nationwide. Alongside this scale-up, an Embedded Evidence Lab was created within the Ministry to strengthen data systems and use in support of but also beyond STARS.
To achieve these impacts, we advanced the three pillars of our strategic ambition, which this report illustrates with several examples:
We continued to generate evidence on challenges that disproportionately affect people living in poverty. Our Climate & Environment Program published its Research Agenda, which includes addressing the vicious circle of climate change, decreasing agricultural productivity, and agricultural practices contributing to land degradation. As part of our Intimate Partner Violence initiative, we began work in Uganda and Nigeria to measure technology-facilitated gender-based violence, an evolving and under-researched area. We advanced the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative, a partnership with J-PAL funded by the IKEA Foundation, which now spans more than 50 studies in 25 countries.
IPA staff attending the Embedded Evidence Lab 5th Cross-Country Learning Exchange event in Nairobi, Kenya. © 2025 IPA
IPA staff attending the Embedded Evidence Lab 5th Cross-Country Learning Exchange event in Nairobi, Kenya. © 2025 IPA
We shared evidence and supported it on the path to scale. For example, we collaborated with World Vision Kenya to adapt and scale Becoming One, a couples' counseling program proven to prevent intimate partner violence across multiple denominations in Kenya, and partnered with International Care Ministries to pilot it with their network of faith leaders in Uganda. We have increasingly moved beyond sharing evidence to providing hands-on technical assistance to scale cost-effective approaches, which informed the development of resources such as this guide to costing analysis and the Scaling Ingredients Framework.
We equipped decision-makers to use data and evidence. The strong attendance and engagement at the 5th 2025 Cross-Country Learning Exchange, held in Kenya was a testament to the interest in, and the growth of Embedded Evidence Labs. These units are built within Ministries with IPA’s support to address specific policy challenges while building sustainable internal capacity and systems for evidence use. Our growing engagement with country-based research institutions and researchers (who are now working on more than half of our projects) contributes to building lasting evidence ecosystems. Last year, IPA partnered with Kenyatta University in Kenya to embed an impact evaluation course into a Master of Economics degree program, targeted at researchers as well as NGO and government representatives. By anchoring training within the university's own systems, this model builds a self-sustaining pipeline of local evaluation expertise that reinforces IPA's policy engagement with governments.
In 2025, IPA also responded to the rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence in three ways: First, we used AI to push the boundaries of our research methods—for example training AI to mystery-shop customer service chatbots, a novel and much cheaper approach to monitoring consumer protection in digital financial markets. Our goal is to strengthen our own research as well as to share tools with researchers and decision-makers through the IPA Knowledge Hub which we launched last year. Second, we worked with partners to evaluate AI-enabled approaches, such as an AI Tool to Process Labor Trafficking Cases in Brazil. Third, through our AI for Government work, we work with government teams to apply predictive models and machine learning to policy problems, for example to identify students most at risk of dropping out with the Education Embedded Lab in the Philippines.
The world is changing, rapidly. We are responding, and yet, we find that what has made us resilient also positions us well for the years ahead: a dedicated and diverse global staff of over 1,000 people, a long-term presence in over 15 countries, and unique partnerships with researchers, governments, funders, and other key decision-makers. I am filled with both gratitude for how far we have come and confidence in our ability to co-create impact. We are excited to share our new strategic ambition with you later in 2026, which will build on these foundations and set the course for IPA's next chapter.
Thank you for your continued partnership in this work.
Annie Duflo
Our Year in Numbers
* As of June 2026
15
country offices
17
additional countries where we work
23
Embedded Evidence Lab teams across 10 countries and 9 sectors
800+
staff
1,800+
researchers in our network
50%
of our active projects include researchers from low- and middle-income countries
1,000+
projects ongoing or completed to date, including 650+ randomized evaluations
300 million+
people reached through evidence-based scale-ups
Strategic Response in Evolving Environment
The dismantling of USAID, the world's largest bilateral aid agency, coupled with funding cuts from other major donors (UK Foreign and Commonwealth & Development Office, the French Development Agency, and others), marked a seismic shift in 2025. For the more than 831 million people living on less than $3 a day, hard-won progress in the fight against poverty became more fragile. At the same time, rapid advances in AI and data science opened new possibilities for how evidence is generated, shared, and used. Here is how IPA responded:
Leveraging Technology for Greater Impact
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and cloud-based data systems are changing how evidence is generated, shared, and applied in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As foreign aid contracts and government budgets tighten, the pressure on institutions to do more with less has intensified. AI and data systems amplify the capacity and data quality already present in the systems they enter: where those systems are strong, these technologies multiply their effect, and where capacity or data quality are weak, they multiply the weakness. Getting the underlying systems right is therefore as important as adopting any particular technology. As the organization that helped pioneer randomized evaluations(RCTs) for global development, IPA is now applying that same rigor to integrating AI-powered tools into the government systems and data infrastructure where lasting decisions are made.
As governments and implementers face growing pressure to make evidence-based decisions at scale, access to reliable analytical tools and methods has become a significant operational constraint. In 2025, IPA launched the IPA Knowledge Hub, a public platform consolidating IPA's research methods, data science tools, and analytical guidance in a single, accessible resource. Alongside the Hub, IPA invested in automated data workflows and centralized cloud infrastructure to reduce the time researchers spend on data management and improve data quality across the organization. Together, these investments make rigorous analytical methods more accessible to a wide range of decision-makers, from ministry officials designing national programs to researchers building new studies.
Governments increasingly recognize AI's potential to improve public services, but rarely have the technical capacity to design, evaluate, and maintain AI-powered systems independently. IPA's AI for Government work, drawing on data science expertise and the Embedded Evidence Labs program, partnered with government agencies in 2025 to apply predictive models, machine learning, and large language model (LLM) applications to concrete policy challenges. In the Philippines, IPA partnered with the Department of Education's Embedded Lab to develop a predictive algorithm identifying students most at risk of dropping out, helping the ministry target retention strategies more efficiently while strengthening its underlying enrollment data systems. In Peru, the OEFA Innova Lab applied machine learning to high-resolution satellite imagery to build an automated dumpsite fire detection system, identifying over 1,700 dumpsite fires in 2024 and creating a national georeferenced database for systematic, low-cost environmental monitoring. In each case, IPA co-designed the solution with government counterparts, trained staff to maintain the tools, and embedded data-driven processes into institutional operations and remains engaged to support scalability and sustainability.
As funding for evidence generation tightens, the cost and time required by traditional research methods have become real constraints on the volume and reach of rigorous evidence. IPA integrated AI methods into its own research processes to address these constraints directly. Working with financial regulators, IPA applied natural language processing and machine learning to detect patterns of consumer harm in digital financial markets, a scalable approach to consumer protection monitoring that reduces the cost of traditional audit methods substantially. IPA also built a system for monthly tracking of digital financial services pricing across 18 countries, used large language models to accelerate the analysis of qualitative data including interview transcripts, and began piloting AI-powered survey approaches for field data collection. These methods lower the cost of rigorous evidence generation without compromising analytical quality, keeping evidence accessible to inform programs that serve people living in poverty.
Across data infrastructure, government AI adoption, and research methods, these investments reflect a consistent principle: technology delivers lasting value when it is grounded in rigorous evidence, embedded institutional relationships, and data systems built to sustain it. What distinguishes IPA's approach is the capacity to carry AI and data science through the full cycle, from strengthening underlying systems, to co-designing and evaluating applications with government partners, to making evidence generation faster and more affordable. That full-cycle capacity is what allows a predictive model to move from a pilot into a ministry's operational systems, or a new analytical method to reduce costs without compromising what makes evidence credible. The result is rigorous evidence reaching more decision-makers in the countries where it matters most.
Deepening Our Work with Governments in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
As external funding contracted, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) faced not only tighter budgets but also the loss of much of the research and evaluation funding that had previously guided investments and programs. Governments are increasingly required to fund both the delivery of essential services and the generation and use of evidence, while building the internal capacity to make cost-effective, evidence-based decisions that stretch limited resources. IPA is uniquely positioned to support governments in meeting these challenges through its 15 country offices, which provide deep contextual knowledge and local infrastructure, complemented by sectoral expertise, a global researcher network, and established partnerships with governments and implementing organizations.
In Rwanda, IPA and Georgetown University's Initiative on Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de) partnered with researchers Clare Leaver, Owen Ozier, Pieter Serneels, and Andrew Zeitlin and the Rwandan government, to design and implement Supporting Teacher Achievement in Rwandan Schools (STARS). STARS is a four-year adaptive trial and nationwide implementation, aimed at incorporating learning outcomes into teachers' performance contracts, known as imihigo, with the objective of creating and implementing a teacher motivation package to improve learning outcomes. The project operates as part of the Ministry of Education's Embedded Evidence Lab, which is jointly supported by IPA and gui2de. Being embedded inside the government, the Lab helped the Ministry address not only the research questions, but also the coordination, systems, and decision-making challenges involved in implementation at scale. Through the Lab, IPA and gui2de have strengthened government information systems, including the quality of Rwanda's Comprehensive Assessment Management Information System (CAMIS) and Teacher Management Information systems (TMIS), coordinated a cross-ministerial steering committee negotiating decisions and aligning goals, provided training to the National level staff and District education officials on the system use and designed monitoring routines to track STARS at national scale.
STARS built on an earlier IPA and gui2de pay-for-performance evaluation conducted between 2015 and 2018, which found that contracts rewarding teachers for classroom learning gains and overall performance quality improved teacher performance and enhanced student learning outcomes.
Over three years, the STARS program tested different contract and delivery models across 345 schools, reaching over 6,400 teachers and 279,000 students. All contract models increased teacher preparation, and the strongest results came from a model that rewarded both teachers and headteachers based on student learning, with children learning the equivalent of an extra 0.6 years of material compared to similar students in other schools. Throughout the program, IPA, the Lab and Ministry of Education teams maintained an iterative approach, continuously refining the contract model based on data to ensure maximum impact on teacher performance. In November 2024, the Ministry of Education incorporated the new evidence-based teacher imihigo approach into its Teacher Development and Management Policy for 2025–2030.
During the fourth year of implementation in the 2025–2026 school year, Rwanda scaled the learning-based teacher performance contracts nationwide, reaching 3,548 public and government-aided schools and 107,411 teachers.
The STARS evidence also guided the Ministry's decision to digitalize the new teacher imihigo system, making performance monitoring more systematic, transparent, and data-driven. Learning outcomes are now formally integrated into teacher performance management across Rwanda, creating stronger accountability mechanisms that align teacher incentives with national education goals.
The Rwanda story illustrates something central to IPA's approach: the most durable impact comes when evidence is embedded into national systems, data infrastructure and policy frameworks, outlasting any single project cycle.
Supporting governments also means helping them answer a practical question that has become more urgent as budgets tighten: which investments will deliver the greatest impact and improve the most lives possible? To support partners with these decisions, IPA developed cost-effectiveness and social return on investment (SROI) modeling approaches matched to the specific questions decision-makers face, whether they are comparing interventions, building the investment case for scaling a program, or projecting value at an early stage. In 2025, IPA advanced comparative cost-effectiveness analyses across its Best Bets interventions to help funders and implementers identify optimal program investments. IPA also began cost modeling for Two-Generation programs, which is generating important insights for investing in new programs serving both young children and their caregivers before rigorous impact data is available.
Our Year in Review
Consumer Protection Initiative Deepens Research and Strengthens Regulator Partnerships
Digital financial services have expanded access to savings, credit, and payments for millions of people, but rapid growth has also exposed consumers to risks including hidden fees, fraud, and over-indebtedness, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where pricing information is difficult to access and regulation is still catching up.
In 2025, IPA’s Consumer Protection Research Initiative, a program dedicated to generating evidence that helps regulators and policymakers protect consumers in digital financial markets, launched a digital financial services price tracking website publishing monthly pricing data from providers across 18 LMICs. The tool enables consumers and regulators to monitor costs in real time, improving transparency in markets where pricing has historically been opaque. CPRI also kicked off financial consumer protection surveys across nine countries, gathering systematic data on the risks consumers face with digital finance and tracking how those risks evolve over time.
CPRI funded 10 new research projects across Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, India, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, and Uganda. Building on more than 20 completed studies on risks including fraud, overcharging, and debt, these projects will generate actionable evidence to help regulators and policymakers better safeguard consumers and design more equitable financial services. CPRI also published a gender and consumer protection learning agenda, outlining evidence gaps on how financial risks differ for women and identifying priority areas for future research.
Advancing Evidence-Based Education Interventions Toward Scale
Too many promising education interventions in low- and middle-income countries remain stuck at pilot stage, never reaching the school systems that need them most. In 2025, IPA advanced several major partnerships to target research and learning activities to bridge initial evidence to scale in national education systems.
One of the most significant of these partnerships is the Scaling Access and Learning in Education (SCALE) program funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), for which IPA serves as the Research and Learning Partner. SCALE seeks to move effective education interventions from pilot to national scale. In 2025, IPA in partnership with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) developed a research and learning framework that guides how SCALE partners design pilots, collect learning data, and adapt their approaches before committing to national scale. In Malawi, SCALE is working with the Ministry of Education, TaRL Africa, and VVOB – education for development to design and test a remediation program informed by Teaching at the Right Level (a remedial education program that builds foundational reading and math skills by grouping students by ability, not grade). This complements the country’s existing structured pedagogy programs which provide teachers with detailed lesson plans, materials, and training to support consistent, high-quality classroom instruction.
IPA's Two-Generation Initiative, supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, works with implementing organizations and policymakers in Colombia, Ecuador, and Uganda to generate and use evidence to strengthen programs for both young children and their caregivers. In 2025, the Initiative partnered with Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports to support baseline data collection for the country’s Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy. The effort is helping to lay the foundation for a national ECCE data management and information system. IPA’s Two-Generation Initiative completed its first randomized evaluation in 2025. In partnership with BRAC, the study assessed the impact of implementing the Graduation Program with households who have a child attending a BRAC Play Lab. The Initiative also supported ten local and refugee-led organizations in Colombia, Ecuador, and Uganda to strengthen their monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems as they refine their programming along the path to scale.
The Partnerships for Technology in Education (P4T-Ed) initiative, supported by the Jacobs Foundation, partners with educational technology (EdTech) organizations to generate insights for program improvement and scale, with lessons emerging in two areas. First, successful EdTech interventions must be adapted to local systems, and implementation realities as they are replicated in new contexts. In Zambia, IPA supported Edulution to identify which elements of an intensive coaching model drive learning gains when delivering Mindspark's adaptive learning technology, and whether those can be sustained under a lower-cost, teacher-led model suited for government adoption. In Ghana, IPA supported Rising Academies to expand its AI math tutor into government and low-cost private schools, surfacing implementation gaps to address before further scale-up. Second, organizations are more likely to improve and scale effectively when they build the capacity to test, learn, and adapt their programs over time. An A/B test with Inspiring Teachers in Ghana found that training school leaders as coaches, a lower-cost alternative to external coaching staff, improves teaching quality. This finding has already been incorporated into the program's government expansion. Drawing on this and other advisory work, IPA produced a practical guide to A/B testing.
Building Climate Solutions with Governments in Latin America
Climate change and environmental degradation disproportionately affect those living in poverty, yet the evidence on which interventions can effectively address development and environmental challenges together remains thin.
IPA's Climate & Environment Program (CEP) is working to close that gap by generating rigorous evidence on interventions that improve the welfare of people living in poverty while advancing climate resilience and protecting the environment. The program focuses on five strategic priority areas: protecting ecosystems and biodiversity while supporting sustainable livelihoods; reforming food systems for increased incomes, resilience, and sustainability; reducing climate shock vulnerability among low-income populations; supporting clean energy transitions with co-benefits for people living in poverty; and advancing sustainable urbanization in low-income countries and neighborhoods.
In 2025, IPA launched two climate adaptation pilots in Peru and Bolivia. In Peru, IPA partnered with the National Forest and Wildlife Service to study government agroforestry concessions and other policy instruments to reduce deforestation and increase resilience, using qualitative research and surveys with smallholder farmers. The objective is to identify which contractual incentives and complementary interventions may increase effectiveness and inform its national deforestation action plan. In Bolivia, IPA completed a field pilot exploring how high-resolution early warning systems with index insurance (financial payouts triggered as a response to droughts, measured through remote sensing data) could improve smallholder farmers' decision-making and resilience to drought. Both pilots reflect IPA’s approach of working alongside local partners to generate evidence that strengthens climate adaptation policy from within existing government programs.
IPA also published an evidence review on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), programs that provide financial incentives to farmers and communities to conserve forests and other natural resources, examining what it takes to scale these programs effectively. This review is now being used by IPA teams to support the development of new PES projects globally with multilateral, government, and NGO partners.
Expanding the Evidence to Prevent Gender-Based Violence
More than a third of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence, most commonly from an intimate partner. In many low- and middle-income contexts, violence against women remains deeply normalized and measurement approaches to capture and address emerging forms of gender-based violence (GBV) have not kept pace with the evolving nature of these harms.
IPA's Intimate Partner Violence Initiative is working to change that through evidence generation, government partnership, and support for scaling proven interventions.
Since 2025, IPA has been collaborating with sistemaFutura to develop and pilot a survey tool in Uganda and Nigeria to measure technology-facilitated GBV (TFGBV), an under-researched and rapidly evolving form of violence across sub-Saharan Africa and other LMIC countries. Co-created through qualitative research with women, girls, and government partners, the tool responds to a critical measurement gap and will be quantitatively piloted and validated, laying the foundation for future research and policy responses across multiple countries.
IPA also continued to advance Becoming One, a group couples' counseling program proven to prevent intimate partner violence delivered through religious leaders. In 2025, IPA collaborated with World Vision Kenya to adapt and expand the program across multiple denominations in Kenya, and partnered with International Care Ministries to pilot it with their network of faith leaders in Uganda. IPA published a learning agenda articulating key evidence gaps and priority questions to inform effective adaptation, delivery and institutionalization. Together, these efforts are building the evidence and partnerships needed to scale the Becoming One across multiple contexts.
IPA also advanced edutainment interventions to prevent intimate partner violence, an approach that uses entertainment formats such as radio drama to shift social norms and behaviors. Through a pilot evaluation of the Twubakane Radio Program in Rwanda, conducted in collaboration with NOVAH and RWAMREC, IPA is assessing a program that broadcasts locally relevant dramatized stories modeling healthy relationships, challenging harmful gender norms, and providing information on support services. By engaging government stakeholders, IPA is generating the evidence and fostering partnerships across content creators, implementing organizations, and policymakers, laying the groundwork for a national scale-up and strengthening the government’s capacity to deliver cost-effective, evidence-informed IPV prevention over time.
Displaced Livelihoods Initiative Generates Evidence for Decision-Makers at a Pivotal Moment for Displacement Policy
The global displacement crisis is intensifying at the same moment the humanitarian system faces its deepest funding cuts in decades. As governments and aid agencies make consequential decisions about refugee hosting, assistance levels, and integration policy, the need for rigorous evidence has never been greater.
Through the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative, funded by the IKEA Foundation and in partnership with J-PAL, IPA has catalyzed over 50 studies across more than 25 countries to build that evidence base. Several studies directly engaged with governments navigating major policy shifts this year. In Uganda, IPA-supported researchers studied the welfare effects of large-scale cuts to humanitarian assistance, generating timely evidence for agencies and donors making difficult resource allocation decisions. In Ethiopia, IPA supported three evaluations in partnership with the government's Refugees and Returnees Service, generating the first experimental evidence on extending work permits to refugees, integrating refugees into national public works programs, and including refugees in the national digital ID system. In Thailand, following the government's landmark 2025 decision to extend formal work rights to encamped refugees for the first time, IPA moved quickly to fund a survey of refugee households to understand labor market preferences and constraints, laying the groundwork for future evaluations of the policy's effects.
From East Africa to Southeast Asia, IPA-supported research is generating evidence on what it takes for displaced people to achieve lasting economic inclusion.
Building Evidence to Increase the Reach of Effective Health Interventions
Highly effective health interventions already exist. Oral rehydration treatments prevent children from dying of diarrhea, and contraceptives let women plan whether and when to have children. Yet an intervention can only improve health if people are able and willing to use it, and understanding what drives that uptake remains a persistent challenge for health programs worldwide.
In 2025, IPA partnered with researchers, implementing organizations, and governments to learn how people access and use health interventions, and what keeps effective ones from reaching the people who need them.
In Nigeria, diarrhea remains one of the leading causes of death among children under five, even though oral rehydration salts (ORS) and zinc, the treatment recommended by the World Health Organization, are inexpensive and highly effective. The obstacle is ease of access and use rather than knowledge and awareness. For example, in Bauchi state, most caregivers have heard of ORS, yet approximately 40 percent of all children with diarrhea do not seek care and only about a third of children with diarrhea receive ORS. In partnership with IPA Nigeria, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health, and Bauchi State Ministry of Health and with funding from GiveWell, researchers at the University of Southern California and the RAND Corporation are evaluating whether delivering free ORS and zinc directly to households, along with information on how to use them, increases usage. Reaching over 103,000 households enrolled, the study will show whether home delivery can close the gap between a proven treatment and the children who need it, and whether the approach is ready to scale to other Nigerian states and other countries. Results are expected in 2026.
In Zambia, female students at the University of Zambia rarely use hormonal contraceptives, even though they are cheap and available on campus and unplanned pregnancy is a leading reason women leave school. In this context, where contraceptives are cheap and easily accessible, the mistaken belief that hormonal contraceptives cause infertility proved to be an important barrier to take-up. In partnership with the University of Zambia, IPA evaluated a workshop that addressed that fear and found that it produced large and lasting increases in contraceptive use and reduced pregnancies. The result points to medical mistrust, rather than access, as the constraint that matters most in this setting, and suggests that family planning programs may gain more by correcting specific misinformation than by lowering barriers that are already low.
Together, these efforts are helping partners better understand the factors that influence uptake of health interventions and generate evidence to strengthen programs, improve service delivery, and achieve better health outcomes.
Our Impact
Advancing Innovations Along the Path to Scale
Over the last two decades, an "evidence revolution," characterized by the rapid growth of rigorous impact evaluation and evidence-based policymaking, has transformed how governments, funders, and practitioners think about policy and programming. Yet only a small fraction of interventions backed by strong evidence have gone on to achieve impact at scale. Too often, promising programs remain trapped in pilot stages or stall when early funding ends. The path from evidence to large-scale, lasting change is neither linear nor automatic. It requires navigating challenges that go well beyond whether an intervention works: adapting to new contexts, building implementation capacity, securing sustainable funding, and aligning with the policy and institutional ecosystems that will ultimately deliver at scale.
IPA's Scaling Ingredients Framework was developed to help close this gap, providing a practical tool for assessing an intervention's readiness for scale and identifying where investment is most needed. In our Best Bets report, we highlighted 14 emerging innovations with the potential to improve lives at scale: innovations that need further research, coalition-building, and partner commitment to get there. In 2025, IPA continued to advance several of these innovations while deepening its work embedding established approaches into government systems where they can deliver sustained impact at scale.
Strengthening Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for Learners in Ghana through Targeted Instruction
National learning assessments in Ghana revealed wide variation in student learning levels within classrooms, rendering traditional whole-class instruction ineffective for meeting diverse student needs. To address this, IPA partnered with the Ghana Education Service (GES), National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), and the National Teaching Council over more than a decade to develop, test, and scale Differentiated Learning (DL), an approach that groups students by their learning levels rather than by grade or age, then teaches them according to those levels. What began in 2013 with pilot programs and a rigorous evaluation demonstrating impact on learning outcomes evolved into a nationally scalable model through IPA's technical assistance in designing implementation systems, monitoring frameworks, and sustainability structures.
Improving foundational learning was a national priority for GES under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), positioning DL as a core strategy for the country. GALOP is a fund from the World Bank and Global Partnership for Education aimed at improving the quality of education for more than two million children in low-performing primary schools in Ghana. In 2025, the DL program reached approximately 2.4 million learners across 10,092 schools through GALOP, with over 70,000 teachers and 10,000 headteachers trained either in person or through a digital training platform.
A critical innovation was IPA's support for creating and training 261 District DL Focal Persons, a new role embedded within the education system to validate classroom data and supervise teaching practice at the district level. This permanent support structure, which did not exist before, gives GES a built-in mechanism for maintaining program quality as DL expands. IPA also conducted a randomized evaluation to determine the most cost-effective way to sustain teacher quality over time. To sustain implementation quality, GES periodically conducts refresher training for teachers already familiar with the approach. An evaluation of this training found that in-person refresher sessions increased the share of classrooms starting DL by 23 percentage points, meaning that roughly one in five additional classrooms started the program correctly after training compared to before.
Looking ahead, Ghana has secured additional funding through its new Global Partnership for Education (GPE) compact to extend Differentiated Learning to 6,000 more public schools, ultimately reaching approximately 4.8 million learners (representing 100% of the learners in primary school) over the next five years. IPA continues to work with GES to strengthen and improve the quality and use of monitoring data in program management, ensuring that as the program grows, it keeps delivering the results the evidence predicts it should. Learn more about Ghana's Differentiated Learning program in this impact story.
mEducation Recognized as One of 100 World’s Most Impactful and Scalable Innovations
In the Philippines, prior to COVID-19 only one-third of learners met minimum proficiency in mathematics, and the pandemic contributed to significant additional learning losses. In response, IPA partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) and Youth Impact to pilot and scale mEducation, a cost-effective phone-based math tutoring program first tested successfully in Botswana. mEducation was selected for the HundrED Global Collection 2026, recognized as one of 100 of the world's most impactful and scalable education innovations. The program tailors math instruction to each learner's learning level through weekly scheduled one-on-one tutoring calls. It is designed to reach families where connectivity and resources are limited, requiring only a basic mobile phone.
Since the 2021 pilot, mEducation has demonstrated consistent learning gains. In 2024, the share of students unable to solve basic math operations dropped from 56 percent to 15 percent after eight weeks of instruction. With DepEd recognizing these results, IPA provided technical assistance and capacity building to School Division Offices (SDOs) to support locally led implementation, by transferring knowledge so that government staff could run the program themselves. By 2025, cumulative reach had grown to 11,141 learners, 1,231 teachers, and 408 schools across 18 SDOs.
The program also made inroads into teacher education, with universities integrating mEducation into their programs so that pre-service teachers serve as tutors while gaining practical experience and course credit.
Bringing Agricultural Markets to Farmers' Doorsteps in Mali
In southern and western Mali, smallholder farmers face a basic but costly problem: the inputs they need to improve their harvests, such as fertilizer, improved seeds, and pesticides, are sold in distant cities and secondary towns, with little to no distribution network reaching rural villages. High prices, limited credit options, and poor transportation infrastructure mean that many farmers go without these inputs, contributing to lower yields and lower incomes.
To address this, IPA partnered with researchers Andrew Dillon and Nicolo Tomaselli, the National Union of Agro-Input Dealers (UNRIA), and microlender Soro Yiriwaso to design and test Village Input Fairs (VIFs). The concept is straightforward: agro-dealers travel to farming communities to sell inputs on site, while microfinance institutions attend the same fairs to offer farmers credit on the spot, removing two major barriers, access to credit and markets, at once. A randomized evaluation conducted between 2017 and 2019 found that this combination significantly increased farmers' participation and fertilizer purchases, benefiting 9,000 households.
These results led to a private sector-driven scaling strategy designed to create a sustainable market ecosystem benefiting farmers, agro-dealers, and microfinance institutions alike. Local firms take on the role of organizing and running the fairs in each region, with IPA providing technical assistance on operations, stakeholder coordination, and data collection. By 2024, the program had expanded to 160 fairs across three regions of Mali, generating 45.8 million West African francs (FCFA) ( about US $ 81,267) in transactions. In 2025, 60 fairs were organized in the southern Bougouni region under the leadership of local firm MASSARAN, with 21 agro-input dealers participating and 53 out of 60 villages recording purchases.
A significant development in 2025 was the creation of Sene Sugu Folo, a social enterprise established by the project's researchers to organize and run Village Input Fairs as a commercially viable business in Mali. This marks a shift from a research-driven initiative to a locally owned venture designed to sustain itself without continued donor funding. The model is also being replicated in Ghana, where a three-year strategy will bring 160 fairs to farming communities over two years, reaching approximately 14,400 farmers directly.
Embedded Evidence Labs: Transforming Government Decision-Making from Within
IPA's Embedded Evidence Labs program continues to deepen its impact by institutionalizing evidence-based decision-making within government agencies across multiple continents. Labs are teams that work within government institutions to systematically connect research with policy and help build the internal capacity, systems, and routines needed for governments to implement evidence-informed policy at scale. We currently support 23 Embedded Evidence Lab teams across 10 countries and 9 sectors, with Lab teams working directly within government institutions to address specific policy challenges while building sustainable internal capacity for evidence use. This approach creates lasting institutional change that persists beyond individual projects. Below are several examples of how the Labs are helping design evidence-based policy and support its implementation at scale.
“Our collaboration with IPA has strengthened our capacity to generate, share, and apply evidence in practice. Decision-making within the Ministry has shifted. Today, every major decision must be backed by data. It’s now embedded as standard practice that policies and actions are evidence-based."
Brighton Barugahare, Commissioner, Ministry of Education and Sports, Uganda
Kenya Education Evidence Hub Shapes National Gender Policy
Kenya's Education Evidence Hub (EEH), an Embedded Evidence Lab within the Ministry of Education, aims to build long-term internal capacity to collect and act on high-quality data to design, adapt, and more effectively target education programs and policies. The EEH is included in the National Education Sector Strategic Plan 2023–2027, with the Ministry providing resources, staff, and office space to support its mission.
In 2025, the EEH played a central role in shaping Kenya's revised Gender Policy in Education Training & Research, 2025. The EEH and IPA joined the Ministry-led Policy Review Technical Working Group and partnered with the Population Council to create multiple channels for bringing evidence into the process. Drawing on rigorous research on what works to reduce adolescent pregnancy, keep girls in school, and prevent school-based gender violence, the Lab provided evidence-based recommendations across several policy areas, including targeted cash transfers, water and sanitation improvements, mentorship programs, youth skills training, and violence prevention strategies. The Lab also trained government officials on evidence use and presented findings at key policy workshops, including a synthesis on "What Works in Education and Gender" that directly informed the policy drafting process.
The Ministry of Education approved the revised policy for implementation in September 2025. The EEH is now working with the Ministry on implementation priorities, including strengthening gender-responsive teaching practices and integrating violence prevention interventions into schools, ensuring the policy translates into real improvements for girls and young women across Kenya.
Uganda's Ed Lab Drives Evidence-Based Reform in Science Education
Uganda's Education Policy Evidence and Implementation Lab (Ed Lab), an Embedded Evidence Lab within the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), aims to strengthen the use of data and evidence in education policymaking and implementation. Housed under the Education Policy and Research (EPAR) department, the Lab works directly with ministry teams to identify priority policy questions, generate rigorous evidence, and translate findings into recommendations matrices that ministry units incorporate into their annual work plans.
In 2025, the Ed Lab advanced its flagship work on persistent underperformance in compulsory science subjects at the lower secondary level. Following the Government of Uganda's 2005 decision to make biology, physics, and chemistry mandatory, performance has remained low despite substantial investments including salary increases for science teachers, the Secondary Science and Mathematics (SESEMAT) program, and expanded laboratory infrastructure. The 2019 National Assessment of Progress in Education showed that only 47 percent of students who sat for the Uganda Certificate of Education passed science subjects, and 2022 Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) data indicated continued deterioration. Working closely with EPAR, the Government Secondary Education Department, UNEB, and the Directorate of Education Standards, the Ed Lab combined administrative data analysis with a targeted survey of students, teachers, school administrators, district education officers, and inspectors, then convened validation sessions and interdepartmental meetings to translate the findings into clear, actionable recommendations.
The findings have informed several concrete policy responses. The ministry approved a resolution to hire science subject teachers through Parent Teacher Associations to address documented staffing gaps, and has prioritized science education in regional engagements with district officials and school leaders. The evidence has also been incorporated into the issues paper underpinning Uganda's draft National Science Education Policy, establishing an analytical foundation for the new national framework. The Ed Lab continues to work with MoES on implementation priorities, ensuring strategic, evidence-based investments in STEM education align with national development goals and address the specific barriers documented through the research.
Colombia's ICBF Lab Scales Apapachar for Violence Prevention and Gender-Equitable Care
Over half of children under five in Colombia are subjected to physical or psychological punishment at home. Following the country's 2021 legal ban on all forms of physical punishment, Colombia's Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) called for evidence-based programs to translate this mandate into practice.
In response, ICBF, Fundación Apapacho, and IPA designed Apapacho, a program promoting non-violent parenting practices. Through the ICBF Innovation and Evidence Lab, an Embedded Evidence Lab that works within ICBF to strengthen evidence use in program design and decision-making, IPA supported the program's development from the ground up, combining a stage-based learning approach with the Scaling Ingredients Framework. This included designing goals, identifying what needed to be tested, establishing a monitoring and evaluation system, and defining a clear path to scale and institutionalization. In 2024, the Lab, along with IPA, evaluated the first pilot with 300 caregivers in Bogotá and Soacha, assessing its effectiveness in promoting non-violent parenting, reducing parental stress, and reducing acceptance of violent punishment. The results were encouraging: caregivers adopted more positive parenting beliefs, increased development-supportive practices, and reduced their acceptance of physical and psychological violence. The evaluation also identified a key challenge: lower participation rates among male caregivers due to time demands.
These findings directly informed the co-creation of a refined version, Apapachar, developed by Fundación Apapacho, Equimundo, ICBF, and IPA in 2025. This version adopts a hybrid approach that combines digital delivery via WhatsApp with in-person sessions, with a stronger focus on gender-equitable parenting to increase male caregiver engagement and support the transformation of gender roles in caregiving. In 2025, IPA with support from the Lab, launched a randomized controlled trial with over 1,100 caregivers across 39 service units in four municipalities to assess whether the program maintains its impact as it moves toward broader implementation.
Based on the strength of the evidence generated at each stage, ICBF has incorporated Apapachar into its national early childhood development service offering. The 2026 scale-up is projected to reach approximately 20,000 caregivers across 9 regions, with phased expansion to all 32 departments by 2030 through ICBF's existing infrastructure serving 2.3 million children annually. Apapachar was conceived from the outset with a scaling perspective, making it replicable and adaptable across contexts. As a result, local governments have shown growing interest in integrating Apapachar into their ECD and caregiving systems, creating a strong pathway for long-term sustainability and impact. Together with Heal to Grow, Apapachar is a flagship program of the ICBF Innovation and Evidence Lab and has informed its design and structure. The Lab currently has a pipeline of seven projects across ECD, youth, and family programs, and is now fully institutionalized within ICBF’s organizational structure.
Nigeria's Consumer Protection Labs Strengthen Evidence-Driven Regulation
Nigeria's rapid expansion of digital financial services has exposed consumers to growing risks, while weak redress mechanisms have left many without effective recourse. Two Embedded Evidence Labs are helping the country's regulatory institutions close these gaps.
IPA partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2023 to establish a Consumer Protection Embedded Evidence Lab within the CBN's Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion Department. The Lab strengthened the department's monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems, built data analytics skills among staff, and provided technical assistance on market monitoring tools including a complaints analytics dashboard, institutional performance report cards, and demand-side surveys. IPA's analysis of consumer complaints data identified widespread fraud in Tier-1 bank accounts, contributing to a CBN directive requiring Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and National Identification Numbers (NIN) for all Tier-1 accounts. Lab-generated evidence also informed revisions to the CBN Consumer Protection Regulations, the National Financial Literacy Framework, and the Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028. A Data Management Office was formally established in May 2025, embedding analytics as a core departmental function.
IPA also partnered with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to establish a Consumer Protection Embedded Evidence Lab within the NCC's Consumer Affairs Bureau. The Bureau holds significant visibility into patterns of consumer harm across Nigeria's digital economy, but historically lacked the systems to translate that data into regulatory action. IPA conducted a diagnostic assessment of the Bureau's data and MEL systems, developed a customized training plan for staff, and co-created a consumer complaints analytics dashboard for real-time monitoring. IPA standardized 25 key data fields through a mandatory data dictionary, requiring telecommunications operators to collect complainant demographics including age and gender, and consolidated fragmented complaint data from multiple providers into a centralized repository. An interactive Power BI dashboard now enables the Bureau to track complaint volumes, service level agreement compliance, and geographic trends in real time, replacing static monthly reports. A data cleaning tool reduced complaint processing time from more than 72 hours to under five minutes.
Together, the two Labs are building the institutional infrastructure for evidence-based consumer protection across Nigeria's financial and digital economy sectors.
New Lab Launched in 2025 Leverages Artificial Intelligence for Decision-Making in the Philippines
In 2025, IPA partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Philippines to establish an Embedded Evidence Lab under its Strategic Management (STRATMA) strand. Building on a 10-year partnership with DepEd, the Lab integrates evaluation and data analytics directly into the Department's decision-making processes, enabling it to systematically test innovations, learn what works in the Philippine context, and scale effective solutions. DepEd has taken concrete steps to embed the Lab within its systems, designating its Monitoring and Evaluation Office as the hosting unit, with support from the Policy and Planning Service, and assigning government staff who are receiving capacity-building training to lead Lab activities over time. In its first year, the Lab developed monitoring tools and an evaluation plan for a flexible learning modality program for junior high school students and is developing a machine-learning predictive model to identify students at risk of dropping out, with training sessions and implementation guides to support integration into DepEd operations.
Fostering Cross-Country Learning and Knowledge Exchange
In October 2025, IPA co-hosted the 5th Cross-Country Learning Exchange (CCLE) in Nairobi alongside Kenya's Ministry of Education and FCDO's What Works Hub for Global Education. The three-day event brought together 16 Embedded Evidence Labs and education policymakers from across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Lab teams shared experiences in strengthening government data systems, adapting global approaches to local contexts, and scaling evidence-informed education reforms. Government officials from several countries announced plans to launch new Education Labs at sub-national levels, signaling growing political commitment to institutionalizing evidence use. These exchanges create a growing community of practice among government officials committed to evidence-informed decision-making, fostering innovation and mutual support that strengthens the entire network of Embedded Labs.
2025 Supporters
Funders
The foundations, governments, corporations, multilateral organizations, and NGOs supporting IPA’s research and programs
60 Decibels
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), MIT
African Management Institute
Argidius Foundation
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
AVSI Foundation
Banca de las Oportunidades
Bluemind Foundation
BRAC International
Brown University
Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF)
Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)
Compassion International
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Cornell University
Douglas B. Marshall, Jr. Family Foundation
Duke University
Edulution
Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance
Evidence Action
Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)
Fundación Barco
George Washington University
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GitLab Foundation
GiveWell
Global Development Incubator
Good Business Ltd
Hand in Hand International
Harvard University
Health Access Connect
Henry E. Niles Foundation
HereWeGrow
Holman Africa Research and Engagement Fund
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
IDB Invest
IKEA Foundation
Indian School of Business
Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER)
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
International Care Ministries
International Growth Centre (IGC)
Jacobs Foundation
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Learning Equality (LE)
Livelihood Impact Fund
Lively Minds
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London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Mathematica Policy Research
Ministry of Education of Belize
NABU
New York University
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NOVAH (No Violence At Home)
Open Road Alliance
Open Society Foundations
Oxford University
Plan International Norway
Population Services International
Programa Nacional de Investigación Científica y Estudios Avanzados
Purdue Applied Research Institute LLC and Purdue University
QCF
RC Forward
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Right To Play
Save the Children International (SCI)
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World Bank
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Donors
The individuals, family foundations, and corporations supporting IPA’s overall mission
*60 people supported IPA anonymously in 2025.
**A special thank you to our supporters who have been with IPA for over 10 years.
Kristin Ace & Jeff Braemer**
Ariel Amdur
Anonymous (60)*
Ben Appen & Leslie Chang**
Marcelle Arak**
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Zafer Barutcuoglu & Grace Lin**
Trey Beck & Laura Naylor**
Joshua Blum
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John & Sharon Bremer
Adam & Tracy Bromwich**
Emily Brown**
Ruth Buczynski, PhD
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Christopher & Ellen Clapp
Allan & Joyce Cohen**
Daniel & Katherine Culley**
The Dancing Tides Foundation
Matt Darnall & Kathleen Kiernan
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First Dollar Foundation**
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Christopher & Olga Hartwell**
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Johannes Hatje Estate
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Vicente Iglesias Charitable Fund
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Kaplan-Lipson Family Fund**
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W. Trammell Whitfield Foundation Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation
Wickelgren Mikelson Charitable Giving**
Peter Wiley
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WinterHamlin Giving Fund
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Herbert O. Wolfe Foundation
Agnieszka Zieminska Yank & Stephen Yank
Janet Zhou
2025 Financials
IPA’s 2025 fiscal year covered January 1 to December 31, 2025. Percentages are calculated using exact amounts rather than rounded amounts. See our full, audited financials at: poverty-action.org/financials.
Revenue
Grants & Contracts: $47.2m (78.4%)
Contributions: $12.3m (20.5%)
Investment Activity & Other Income: $0.7m (1.1%)
Total: $60.2m
Expenses
Program Services: $42.9m (80.5%)
Management & General: $9.6m (18.0%)
Fundraising: $0.8m (1.5%)
Total: $53.3m
Net Assets
End of 2024: $4.6m
End of 2025: $11.3m
Change in Net Assets: $6.7m
2025 Environmental Report
IPA remains committed to conducting its work in a way that respects and protects the environment. IPA's Environmental and Sustainability Policy continues to guide its approach, with a focus on responsible resource use, staff engagement, sustainable procurement, waste reduction, and climate-conscious operational decisions. In 2025, IPA continued to focus on practical areas where the organization has the greatest operational influence: responsible travel, carbon offsetting, digital ways of working, sustainable procurement, responsible disposal of waste and electronic equipment, and staff awareness. To learn more, view our Environmental Report on our website.
Our Leadership
As of June 2026. Visit poverty-action.org/about/people for a complete and up-to-date list of our global, regional, sector, and country programs leadership.
Board of Directors
Benjamin S. Appen, CFA
Founding Partner, Co-Chair of Investment Committee, and CEO, Magnitude Capital
Trey Beck
Public Policy Analyst
Vineet Bewtra
Senior Advisor, Global Innovation Fund
Isobel Coleman
Chief Executive Officer, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation
Annie Duflo
Executive Director, IPA and Ex Officio Member, Board of Directors
Heather W. Grizzle
Founding Partner, Causeway Strategies
Laura Hattendorf
Senior Advisor, Mulago Foundation
Jane Kabubo-Mariara
Executive Director, Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP)
Dean Karlan
Founder of IPA; Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management; Co-Director of the Global Poverty Research Lab
Karen Levy
Co-Founder, Fit for Purpose
Russell Siegelman
Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Chairman, IPA Board of Directors
Mason Smith
Head of Quantitative Engineering, TGS Management Company
Colin Teichholtz
Co-Head, Office of the CIO, Symmetry Investments
Kentaro Toyama
W.K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information, University of Michigan School of Information
David Wells
High Growth Tech Company Board Member & Advisor
Agnieszka Zieminska Yank
Chief Talent Officer, APCO
Janet Zhou
Director, Strategy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Senior Management Team
Annie Duflo
Executive Director
Claudia Casarotto
Chief Global Programs Officer
Stacey Daves-Ohlin
General Counsel and Secretary, IPA Board of Directors
Sarah de Tournemire
Chief Partnerships & Philanthropy Officer
Steven Glazerman
Chief Research & Methodology Officer
Andrew Solomon
Chief Financial & Operating Officer
Our Offices
As of June 2026, IPA has 15 country offices in Africa, Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, as well as offices in the United States. Visit poverty-action.org/contact-us for up-to-contact information for our office locations, and see poverty-action.org/where-we-work for details on all of the countries where IPA works.
Côte d'Ivoire: Maud Amon-Tanoh, Country Director | contact@poverty-action.org
Colombia: Juan Felipe Garcia, Country Director | info-colombia@poverty-action.org
Ghana: Salifu Amadu, Country Director | info-ghana@poverty-action.org
Kenya: Ginger Golub, Country Director | info-kenya@poverty-action.org
Liberia & Sierra Leone: Zin Nwe Win, Country Manager | info-liberia@poverty-action.org
Malawi & Zambia: Emmanuel Bakirdjian, Regional Director | info-zambia@poverty-action.org
Mexico: Odette Gonzalez Carrillo, Country Director | MEX_info@poverty-action.org
Nigeria: Funmilayo Ayeni, Country Director | info-nigeria@poverty-action.org
Peru: Barbara Sparrow, Country Director | info-peru@poverty-action.org
Philippines: Aftab Opel, Country Director | info-philippines@poverty-action.org
Rwanda: Cassien Havugimana, Country Representative | info-rwanda@poverty-action.org
Tanzania: Zachary Isdahl, Deputy Regional Director, East Africa & Asia | info-tanzania@poverty-action.org
Uganda: Miriam Laker, Country Director | info-uganda@poverty-action.org
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