A malaria bednet hangs in a household in rural western Kenya. © 2007 Aude Guerrucci

John,

IPA has officially been in operation for twenty years, and we couldn’t be prouder of the impact of our work. IPA has informed programs that have scaled up and impacted millions of lives. In this season of gratitude and reflection, we thought we’d review a few of the highlights. Below are five transformative policy changes informed by IPA evidence. Did you know IPA was behind all of these? If not, click the link for more detail.

1. Chlorine Dispensers for Safe Water: Today the Dispensers for Safe Water program, implemented by Evidence Action, is providing ongoing access to chlorine to over 4 million people in Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda today.
2. Free Malaria Bednets: In 2009, the British government cited the study in calling for the abolition of user fees for health products and services in poor countries. Other governments and many organizations have also reconsidered their policies to charge for health services in recent years, opting instead to distribute insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and other health products free of charge.
3. Cash Transfers—Changed the Debate on Giving Cash to the Poor: Evidence demonstrates cash transfers can substantially improve the lives of the extreme poor, and has changed the way we think about giving cash to the poor, creating a valuable benchmark against which to evaluate other programs.
4. School-Based Deworming: School-based deworming is a low-cost program that takes advantage of existing school infrastructure and trains teachers to administer deworming treatment. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends periodic mass school-based treatments in areas where more than 20 percent of children have worm infections. Research by Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel showed that school-based deworming of students significantly improved health and school attendance. School-based deworming campaigns have reached over 191 million children to date.
5. NORMalizing Community Mask-Wearing: IPA and researchers from Yale and Stanford Medical School conducted the first randomized evaluation showing that mask-wearing in a real-world setting reduces COVID-19. The study also found a precise combination of encouragement strategies to substantially increase the use of community mask-wearing, now called the NORM model. IPA and a large coalition of partners quickly mobilized to support government and non-government organizations in scaling the model—reaching over 100 million people. This was just one impactful project from our RECOVR initiative.

Because of the nature of our work, everything we do is in partnership with researchers and policymakers to further our shared goals of reducing poverty. We are proud to be part of the co-creation of evidence that helps to improve the lives of people living in poverty.

We couldn’t do any of it without your help. Investments from people like you help to seed our newest and most innovative projects. Please consider an investment today to help continue our impact.

Thank you!
The IPA Team