USAID launches a new PILCEE consortium with several Dioptra members to improve Agency cost-effectiveness

A global consortium of leading research institutions - including Dioptra’s CARE, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, and Save the Children - announced a $75 million partnership that will contribute vital evidence to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) over the next five years, dramatically improving the cost-effectiveness of its efforts to fight global poverty and promote economic growth. 

Led by the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California, Berkeley, “Promoting Impact and Learning with Cost-Effectiveness Evidence (PILCEE)” represents a historic investment by USAID to inform its activities and programs with rigorous evidence about what works to alleviate poverty. PILCEE brings together a worldwide network of over 1,500 researchers — including over 250 from low- and middle-income countries — to guide USAID’s work by evaluating the impacts of Agency-funded programs and synthesizing findings from the growing evidence base. In doing so, PILCEE will generate important insights for the global development community about the most economical ways to improve lives and promote global growth.

USAID will be able to use this detailed evidence to clearly link its investments in economic growth, global health, agriculture and other areas to improvements in human lives and community well-being around the world, including when the desired outcome is not achieved. As governments face overlapping crises and constrained budgets, this groundbreaking collaboration promises to set an example for aid agencies that want to leverage the power of evidence to do the most good for people experiencing poverty and humanitarian crises around the world.

PILCEE Consortium Partners

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

CARE

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

International Rescue Committee

Mercy Corps

Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA)

Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame

Save the Children

UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy