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As we near the culmination of our 2025 Strategic Ambition, we are taking time to reflect on our strategic evolution and the future for IPA. We find ourselves celebrating remarkable accomplishments while preparing for our next chapter of amplified impact in a development sector undergoing drastic transformation. Our 2024 Annual Report highlights some of these key achievements, which were made possible by the dedicated researchers, organizations, funders, and donors we are proud to call our partners.
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mEducation, a phone-based learning program evaluated by IPA in the Philippines, has been selected for the HundrED Global Collection 2026—recognized as one of 100 of the world's most impactful and scalable education innovations from more than 3,000 submissions reviewed by an expert academy.
The program delivers scheduled one-on-one tutoring calls with instruction tailored to each child's learning level. mEducation has proven effective across five countries, even in contexts where in-person instruction is limited. Based on this evidence, mEducation is now being scaled nationally in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd Philippines),Youth Impact, and other partner NGOs and education institutions.
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MOVING EVIDENCE TO POLICY
In 2022, IPA partnered with the Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of National Education and Literacy (MENA in French) to establish an education-focused Embedded Evidence Lab, known as the Ed Lab, with the financial support of the Jacobs Foundation. The Lab embeds rigorous research and data analysis into MENA's decision-making processes to improve student learning outcomes. Working closely with government counterparts, the Ed Lab has strengthened institutional capacity, co-created a research and learning agenda, supported programs’ monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategies, and developed a local evidence repository cataloguing over 40 studies to guide education policy and program development.
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NEW STUDY RESULTS
In Uganda, researchers Francesco Loiacono and Mariajose Silva Vargas evaluated the impact of a short-term internship and skills certifications for refugees, finding that the program strengthened business owners’ support for refugee labor market integration, improved their perceptions of refugee skills, and doubled the firms’ hiring of refugees up to two years later. This effect was particularly strong when refugees and employers who held positive attitudes prior to the program were matched, suggesting the importance of either matching to preexisting attitudes or holding preparatory training before implementation. A concurrent study by the researchers also suggests that matching local workers and refugee workers improved social cohesion, providing further evidence that intergroup contact can reduce discriminatory behaviors.
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NEW PUBLICATION
IPA's Human Trafficking Research Initiative (HTRI), funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS), was launched in 2020 to address a critical gap in global anti-trafficking efforts: the lack of rigorous evidence on which programmatic approaches drive meaningful change. This brief looks back on learnings from 25 projects that HTRI has funded to date across 17 countries to examine which types of interventions proved to be most successful, and under what conditions. For policymakers, practitioners, donors, and researchers, these findings can help guide efforts toward designing and implementing interventions with the strongest potential for effectiveness, and avoiding those that fail to deliver.
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Work with IPA 
Featured Job Opportunities
Advisor, Right-Fit Evidence
Play a key role in delivering evidence- and data-driven Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) advisory services to implementers and funders, helping them transform how they use data for decision-making
Senior Financial Accountant
Lead monthly financial close and consolidation processes in compliance with US GAAP, and provide accurate reporting, compliant revenue recognition, audit support, and continuous process improvement across IPA’s financial systems including NetSuite
Associate Research Manager, Philippines
Oversee a portfolio of 3–4 research studies, including both international projects implemented through survey firms across Asia and country office projects managed directly by IPA Philippines
Featured Research Funding Opportunity
Human Trafficking Research Initiative | Request for Proposals | Seed Funding Round 4
IPA’s Human Trafficking Research Initiative (HTRI), funded by the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS) at the U.S. Department of State, has launched its fourth call for seed grant applications. These early-stage grants aim to expand the pipeline of high-quality research on human trafficking by supporting partnerships, exploratory research, and feasibility assessments for future large-scale evaluations of current or planned counter-trafficking interventions. The goal of these grants is to examine the evaluability of current interventions and position teams for full-scale studies at a later stage. Proposals are due by 11:59 pm US Pacific time on Thursday, December 4, 2025.
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Join IPA in discovering and advancing evidence-backed solutions for people living in poverty around the world by making a gift today.
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