The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded $75 million to a consortium of institutions, including Notre Dame’s Pulte Institute for Global Development.
The institutions will work to enhance the effectiveness of poverty alleviation programs through research.
The Promoting Impact and Learning with Cost-Effectiveness Evidence partnership is led by the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley. The initiative will inform USAID’s programs with evidence linking investments in agriculture, global health and economic growth to improvements in human lives and community well-being.
“We’re proud that the Pulte Institute has been selected to identify the most efficient and impactful programs to fight poverty and improve lives,” said Jeffrey Rhoads, vice president for research, in a press release. “Through PILCEE, Notre Dame looks forward to deepening our partnerships with researchers around the globe with the shared goal of providing sustainable interventions to end poverty, part of our university’s strategic framework.”
A worldwide network of over 1,500 researchers will collaborate to guide USAID’s work. They will evaluate the impact of agency-funded programs. PILCEE will then generate insights for the global development community about the most economical ways to improve lives and promote growth.
“The Pulte Institute’s inclusion in this groundbreaking consortium underscores the Keough School’s and Notre Dame’s commitment to addressing global challenges through evidence-based solutions,” Mary Gallagher, Keough School of Global Affairs dean, said. “Through this partnership, we will continue to advance research that directly informs practical solutions to poverty.”
The Pulte Institute will connect USAID requests for research, evidence synthesis, evaluations and costing analyses with opportunities and academic expertise through a global network of local partnerships.
Danice Brown Guzmán is the associate director of evidence and learning for the Pulte Institute and a lead researcher on the Expanding the Reach of Impact Evaluation project.
“Cost-effectiveness is a crucial area for USAID — and for all of us — to be investigating right now because there are limited resources that we can spend in international development and humanitarian aid,” Guzmán said. “Being able to make strong, rigorous comparisons between different programs or ways of doing development work provides you with an understanding of which approaches are going to lead to the most impact with your investment.”
