IPC-IG's research is rigorous and cross-disciplinary. It brings together economists, demographers, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and experts in the field of international relations with the common goal of fighting poverty and reducing inequality. The research programmes are complementary in nature and designed to reach a wide audience through research, training programmes, advisory services and fellowships, and by supporting knowledge-based networks.

IPC-IG contributes significantly to the promotion of South-South dialogue through a number of activities, such as: i) Sharing innovative policy experiences in the South; ii) Supporting capacity building of policymakers, development practitioners and UN specialists through a series of training programmes; iii) Hosting government representatives and scholars from developing countries; iv) Organising Study Tours; v) Networking with governments in the South.

In 2019, the IPC-IG completes 15 years of work. Since its foundation in 2004, the Centre has been working to meet the requests of countries of the South, as well as developing and providing country-and-context-specific solutions frame around the three pillars: knowlede production, knowledge sharing and capacity strengthening. Solutions have been developed together with policymakers and experts, empowering and strengthening both human and institutional capacities and resources.  

In 2018, the Centre undertook 24 projects in Angola, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, and the 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These projects are being carried out in close collaboration with Brazilian and international donors and partners, including: the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the World Food Programme (WFP); the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian Government (DFAT); the German Corporation for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeiz—GIZ GmbH), on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ); the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); Fundación Espacio Público; Nike, Inc.; the French Development Agency (AfD); the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF); the EU Social Protection Systems Programme (EU-SPS), and the Social Protection Inter-Agency Cooperation Board (SPIAC-B).

On Knowledge Production

• The effect of social protection benefits on growth and equality: identify and quantify the role played by social protection benefits on inclusive growth;

• Monitoring and evaluation of the WFP’s social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) project in Mozambique’s Manica province: monitor and evaluate an innovative social and behaviour change communication project to improve the health and nutrition of children in Manica;

• Enhancing the child sensitivity of the monitoring and evaluation component of Egypt’s Takaful and Karama cash transfer programmes: improve the child sensitivity of the M&E component of the Takaful and Karama cash transfer programmes, providing assistance to Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity;

• Support the production of social protection knowledge and policy analysis in the MENA region: support the production of social protection knowledge and policy analysis in MENA and provide on-demand remote technical support to all 16 UNICEF Country Offices in the region and on-site technical support in selected cases;

• Monitoring and evaluation of Rio’s Olympic Villages: support the M&E of the targets of Nike’s project for 22 Olympic Villages in the City of Rio de Janeiro—baseline and midline;

• Impact evaluation of the World Food Programme’s interventions to improve market access for vulnerable smallholder farmers in Mozambique: evaluate the impact of the WFP`s support to 14 smallholder farmer organisations, with the aim of improving the market access and nutritional outcomes of their members;

• Evaluation of the coverage and benefit incidence of the WFP’s food fortification interventions in Mozambique under the MDG1c Programme: review the coverage and benefit incidence of fortification of staple foods in Mozambique, within the WFP’s MDG1c initiative;

• Enhancing opportunities for vulnerable youth—hearing their voices to inform policies: produce a study, based on original research, to influence policymaking towards facilitating youth participation in the labour force and educational systems in Brazil;

• Studies and proposals for measures towards the achievement of SDG 6 on water and sanitation: develop studies and propose a strategy for monitoring and management mechanisms for programmes and public policies across the Brazilian territory that contribute to the achievement of SDG6 on water and sanitation; to support ANA in the implementation and monitoring of SDG 6 in the country;

• Capacity development programme to enhance the use of poverty analysis in policymaking: enhance the use of poverty analysis by FAO and its partners, with the aim of supporting Morocco and Panama’s policies in achieving SDGs 1 and 2;

• Studies on Brazil’s challenges for 2018 and 2019: produce studies, methodologies, and software on the following topics: the reform of state and municipal social security systems; the distributive impact of pension reforms; the long-term impact of pension reforms on economic growth; the chaotic judicialisation of public policies; the social impact of the opening of the economy; and Brazilian cooperation as a form of ‘soft power’ that allows to rescale the country’s external relations;

• Impact evaluation for the Pró-Semiárido and Dom Helder Câmara—Phase II programmes: construction and analysis of the baseline impact evaluation for IFAD’s Pró-Semiárido Dom Helder Câmara Phase II programmes, and development of the sampling design proposal for the baseline studies for new projects in Maranhão, Ceará and Piauí;

• Support to the publication of an issue of the Policy in Focus magazine—“Women at work: addressing the gaps”;

• Support to the State Department of Social Protection in Kenya to review and update the 2012 National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) and to facilitate the dialogue between government and stakeholders: support the Government of Kenya in reviewing and updating the NSPP to the current standard of social protection in the country;

• Climate Change Expenditures in Brazil: support the Brazilian government’s endeavours related to the identification, classification and transparency of national public financing on climate change;

• Studies on Official Development Assistance (ODA) resource flows earmarked for Brazil and on the Brazilian government’s concessional credit: develop a study to identify, classify, and qualify the flows of ODA resources earmarked for Brazil, focusing on sustainable development projects; analyse the Brazilian concessional credit considering international commitments;

 

On Knowledge sharing

• Social Protection Knowledge Sharing Gateway: facilitate knowledge-sharing, capacity-building, and collaboration on social protection policies among governments, research centres, international organisations, non-governmental organisations and other interested parties;

• Synergies between sustainability, forest conservation and restoration, and agricultural development - a roadmap for the Brazilian rural economy of the 21st century: organise a workshop in Brazil, bringing together key Brazilian and international technical experts, as well as key stakeholders from the Brazilian government and civil society;

On Capacity Strenghthening 

• Adaptation of the Leadership & Transformation Curriculum on Building and Managing Social Protection Floors in Africa (TRANSFORM) into an online course: adapt the eight available TRANSFORM modules into an asynchronous, instructor-led online course to be hosted by socialprotection.org and supported by other online educational organisations such as the African Virtual University;

• Translation of TRANSFORM’s 5-day Social Protection Curriculum into Portuguese;

• Translation of TRANSFORM’s 5-day Social Protection Curriculum into French;

• Second run of the TRANSFORM course and training of facilitators: offer the second run of the 10-week Transform online course in 2018 through the socialprotection.org Virtual Campus and train five e-learning facilitators to support the learning process and promote collaboration among participants;

• Support to the Ministry of Social Assistance and Reintegration (MINARS) and other national institutions in Angola in the strengthening of assistance and social protection initiatives in the country: provide technical assistance for the strengthening of capacities in the social protection sector in Angola, especially providing instructions and expert advice in M&E of social protection policies;

• Development of a comprehensive curriculum outline and content for an e-learning course on poverty reduction and delivery of two capacity-development workshops: empower key development professionals in FAO member countries to address poverty reduction in a comprehensive and sustainable manner, by adopting an integrated and multidisciplinary approach.

 For more information on our projects, read IPC-IG 2018 Activity Report, and previously launched reports.

Ever since its creation in 2004, the IPC-IG has disseminated over 1.700 policy-oriented research publications that provide useful insights on various issues related to inclusive growth strategies. The number of downloads has reached more than 7.6 million  over 179 countries.

 

It has established and consolidated a global network that reaches out to selected stakeholders working in areas related to its thematic focus at government level and in academia, the United Nations and civil society organisations. IPC-IG’s training sessions, workshops and study tours have already involved more than 7,000 representatives of around 50 developing countries

 

 

Updated: February, 2019