The IPC-IG celebrates its 18th anniversary

By IPC-IG
Photo: Timon Studler/Unsplash

 

This year, the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) reaches 18 years of activities. It is widely recognised as a global centre for policy dialogue on inclusive growth, social protection, poverty reduction, sustainable development, and socio-technological innovations. Since 2004, the IPC-IG has worked on more than 160 projects, with over 65 partners worldwide. It has produced around 2,200 publications, which have been downloaded more than ten million times. 

The history of the Centre began in 2002 with the signing of an agreement between the Brazilian Government and the UNDP for the implementation of a study centre on poverty reduction. However, it was only in 2004 that the Centre officially started its activities, being hosted by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and having received substantive contributions from its experts and researchers since then. In 2009, the then International Poverty Centre (as it was  known) was renamed to the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth to incorporate the broader scope of work carried out by the team over the years.  

To celebrate its 18 years, the IPC-IG team is carrying out some special activities. Several people who are part of the Centre’s history and appreciate our work have been invited to contribute to a video campaign. They talk about the work developed by the Centre and what they wish for the institution in the future. They also look back on its contributions to global dialogue on innovative development policies over almost two decades. This video campaign has been under way since August, and is expected to run until the end of the year. If you wish to be part of it, please, send an email to [email protected].

Coincidentally, in the year of its coming of age, the IPC-IG has also achieved the milestone of publishing 500+ One Pagers—its most popular publication format. Traditionally, a collection of One Pagers is released for every hundred publications. The fifth Collection was released in July of this year, gathering One Pagers 400 to 499. They discuss a variety of topics, from responses to COVID-19, to sustainable development challenges, food and nutrition security; poverty reduction, the SDGs, gender equality, and many others.  

To mark this impressive milestone , former IPC-IG researcher, Eduardo Zepeda, who created our One Pager format, told us the reasoning behind it. Several authors featured in the collection were also invited to talk about the format’s advantages. The videos of these interviews are featured in this playlist.  

Still celebrating Centre’s 18th anniversary, Fabio Veras Soares, our Senior Research Coordinator, participated in the ‘Quick Wins’ section of the latest episode of the socialprotection.org’s podcast “Social protection, sustainability and fisheries”, launched on 30 September. He highlights three studies that marked the IPC-IG’s trajectory and helped build its stellar reputation over the years: a comparative study looking at the impact of conditional cash transfers in Brazil, Chile and Mexico; an impact evaluation of Paraguay’s Tekoporã conditional cash transfer programme; and a comprehensive overview of the living conditions of the Yemeni population, with a particular focus on children, in partnership with UNICEF Yemen.  

“We were showing that people do have access to the money from the cash transfer, and people do invest that money in the well-being of their children and their own. So that was something that made me very happy, in a very difficult situation. Because the country was on the brink of war, but we managed to talk to different governments and show them how social protection can improve the lives of people. And that, for me, is the most beautiful thing that the IPC-IG can do: to link the expertise of policymakers with the rigorous academic evaluations carried out by our researchers”, explains Veras.  

The IPC-IG team is very proud of what it has accomplished during these 18 years of activities and looks forward to the years to come. Join the conversations about the Centre's anniversary by using the hashtags #IPCIG18years and #WithIPCIG on your social media channels.