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Reducing Pregnancy Among Adolescent Girls Through Sex Education and Information Services in Rural Peru

Photo: Adolescent girls going to school in Cusco. ©Shutterstock/studiolaska

Researchers: Erica Field and Renzo Severino

Adolescent pregnancy is a primary driver for girls to drop out of secondary school, especially in rural regions with limited access to quality health services. This can have significant economic, educational, and health repercussions for them and their families. In a region in rural Peru—where adolescents live predominantly in low-income households and often speak an Indigenous language—researchers are evaluating whether sexual education classes and buses providing information and referrals to local health services reduce the incidence of pregnancy.

Supporting Evidence-Based Policy Through Innovation: The Peru MIMP Evidence Lab

Photo: Minister Teresa Hernández (left) and IPA Peru Country Director Barbara Sparrow sign the agreement between IPA and MIMP. © 2024 MIMP

Staff: Bárbara Sparrow, Fernando Tavara, Alexandra Heredia, and Aracely Montes Arias

Since 2024, IPA has partnered with the Peruvian Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) to establish an Embedded Evidence Lab within the Ministry's Monitoring and Policy Evaluation Office (OMEP). The lab’s focus is on promoting data- and evidence-based policymaking, enhancing the effectiveness of programs, and developing innovative solutions to the challenges facing Peru’s women, children, adolescents, and other vulnerable populations. IPA’s team has conducted capacity-building workshops for MIMP officials and helped identify their key policy challenges, forming the basis for future projects and laying the groundwork for an evidence-driven culture within MIMP. The team has also contributed to incorporating an innovation component into the “Prevent to Protect” strategy, which aims to prevent sexual violence against children, leading to the lab’s first project with this component—a pilot communications campaign launching later this year.

Are Instant Payment Systems Changing the Financial Inclusion Landscape in Emerging Markets?

Despite significant advances in digital financial services, nearly one in three adults globally still lack access to basic financial accounts and use cash for most retail transactions. Instant payment systems offer a promising solution to expand the usage of digital financial services by creating a compelling alternative to cash. In a blog post on FinDev Gateway, authors Hussam Razi (IPA) and Hakan Ozyilmaz (Stanford Graduate School of Business) summarize five key takeaways from a research synthesis brief produced by the Toulouse School of Economics in partnership with IPA.

Why Digital Safety Matters, And What We’re Doing About It

While technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) affects women and girls disproportionately worldwide, its extent and nature remain largely unknown in low- and middle-income countries. In this blog post, co-authors Victoria Kiasyo Isika & Jackie Namubiru (IPA) and Alexandra De Filippo & Abigail Hatcher (sistemaFutura) highlight how IPA is addressing the knowledge gap by collaborating with sistemaFutura to develop an instrument for measuring different kinds of TFGBV tailored to the experiences of women in African settings.

Reintegrating Former Members of Nonstate Armed Groups: State of Evidence and Design Recommendations

In a new evidence review, IPA and J-PAL examine the current state of research on reintegrating former members of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) into civilian society, and find that the overall evidence base remains limited and highly context-specific. This review identifies critical questions for future research and offers design recommendations to strengthen both the evidence base and program implementation, while emphasizing the need for interventions tailored to local conditions that address both socioeconomic and psychological dimensions of reintegration.

Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls: What We’ve Learned in the 30 Years since the Beijing Declaration

The 1995 Beijing Declaration and subsequent Platform for Action set ambitious goals for improving the lives of women around the world. In this blog, co-authors Victoria Kiasyo Isika, Caroline Lawton, and Sydney O’Connell highlight what we’ve learned since the signing of the Beijing Declaration on improving women’s outcomes and preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

Youth, Violence, and Therapy | Evidence of the Impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as an Intervention

There is often a disproportionate concentration of violence and crime among young people in low-income urban areas compared to their high-income counterparts. Experimental evidence from high-crime contexts highlights the effectiveness of CBT-inspired interventions in reducing criminal, violent, and antisocial behaviors. In this blog post, co-authors Lelys Dinarte-Diaz (World Bank), Ricardo Morel (IPA), and Florence Dzame (IPA) share relevant evidence from low- and middle-income countries and marginalized communities, and discuss the road ahead for integration into governance processes and further evidence generation.

ADB’s Building Resilience in Education Systems Features mEducation

In a new report, the Asian Development Bank presents 13 chapters on strengthening education system resilience, written specifically for policymakers and practitioners. Chapter 9 highlights the mEducation program evaluated by IPA, demonstrating how simple and targeted lessons delivered via mobile phone can improve learning even during school disruptions, ensuring education continues and no student is left behind.