IPD - Intro from Wienot Films on Vimeo.
In 2013, when students from The University of Texas at Austin presented the first-ever multidonor interactive map on global aid to one of Malawi's ministers of finance, he said, "We're putting all of the resources in the wrong spot! I have to talk to the donors about this!"
Under the direction of Drs. Michael Findley (UT Department of Government) and Kate Weaver (UT LBJ School), students worked with international aid donors and government officials to gather subnational data on all of the aid projects in the country. Using ArcGIS, they created interactive maps so that policy-makers could see where the aid was going and use this information to make better decisions about spending priorities. The work was funded first as part of a $7.6 million Minerva grant provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, which quickly led to a $25 million consortium grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to scale up this critical aid transparency work.
"It was a great moment when we realized our research was going to make a real difference," said Weaver, the LBJ School's associate dean for students and an international aid policy researcher. "Our work has directly shaped international aid transparency and accountability, while empowering students to participate first-hand in cutting-edge fieldwork, geomapping and aid evaluation. Many of the students have since gone on to prominent positions in global development."
"IPD pays off in the form of professional connections, employable skills, and access to internships and job opportunities. Not only did I receive a ton of support from the IPD directors when searching for jobs, I've also been able to count on a large network of IPD alumni." —LBJ alumna Daniela Hernandez (MGPS '18)
Weaver, along with Drs. Michael Findley and Rachel Wellhausen from UT's Government Department, directs Innovations for Peace and Development (IPD), a student-driven research lab created in 2013 — the same year students presented the global aid map in Malawi. The lab provides mentored opportunities for interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research on global conflict and peacebuilding, foreign assistance, poverty alleviation, good governance and human rights. More than 600 undergraduate and graduate students have participated in the program since its inception, creating a worldwide network of alumni that continue to provide mentoring and job opportunities to UT students.
Daniela Hernandez (pictured above far left, during her internship with Map the Philippines) was a UT sophomore when she first joined IPD in 2015. She later pursued a dual degree in Latin American Studies and Global Policy Studies. She interned in Manila, Philippines as part of her work with IPD and served as IPD's program manager during her final two years as an LBJ student. Hernandez graduated in 2018 and currently works with the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services conducting an evaluation of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel.
"IPD pays off in the form of professional connections, employable skills and access to internships and job opportunities," she said. "Not only did I receive a ton of support from the IPD directors when searching for jobs, I've also been able to count on a large network of IPD alumni. The fact that you were involved in IPD is an instant green flag for those in the IPD alumni network, and they will very likely help you when you are looking for jobs, internships and fellowships."
With over 600 student alumni, IPD now has presence in numerous global development institutions, foundation, think thanks, and the private sector such as the World Bank and U.S. Department of State, United Nations Foundation, Brookings Institution, and Microsoft.
In reflecting upon IPD's accomplishments, Weaver said, "What is especially exciting is how we have, in the past seven years alone, expanded our footprint into so many other new areas of applied research, including peacebuilding evaluation, anti-money laundering and tax havens, international and indigenous property rights and governance reforms in international institutions. And in doing this work, we have provided critical data and research training, professional development, and networking opportunities to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students from across dozens of majors at UT. IPD provides exactly the kind of interdisciplinary, experiential learning on campus that UT seeks to offer."
Raymond Weyandt (pictured above meeting with a collective of women entrepreneurs in Rwanda), a current public affairs student at the LBJ School, had an experience similar to Hernandez. Weyandt was one of the first students to get involved with IPD in 2013, while he was still a UT undergrad. He worked on many of IPD's projects focused on conflict, open data and governance. After he graduated with his B.A. in government, Weyandt went on to work with the Open Government Partnership, leading an evaluation of Austin's open government data plans and supporting national level evaluations in the UK, Sierra Leone, Mongolia and other countries. After gaining some experience in policy research and desiring to strengthen his analytical skills, Raymond returned to UT to pursue a graduate degree at the LBJ School. He currently serves as IPD's program manager and leads the Reimagining Safety and Security team.
Weaver said the future of IPD is bright. Nearly 160 students are actively participating in IPD training sessions and research projects during the fall 2020 semester. Many of these teams are producing primary data sets, conference papers, peer review publications and major policy reports. In the past seven years, IPD has attracted over $4 million in funding though numerous grants and collaborative projects from sources such as the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S Agency for International Development, United Nations Peacebuilding Fund and the United States Institute for Peace.
To learn more about how to get involved in IPD in Spring 2021, email ipdutexas@gmail.com or visit http://www.ipdutexas.org/.
IPD currently consists of 11 research teams, including:
- Banking Bad — researching money laundering, terrorism financing and corruption by conducting field experiments on banks and corporate service providers globally.
- Climate Change and Transparency — a new team exploring the growing issue of lack of oversight on environmental regulations combined with resilience initiatives.
- Data4Development — a team studying the shifts in global power, its consequences for the governance of the world economy and socio-economic development, focusing on the rise of China and representative democracy in international financial institutions.
- Data4Peace — conducting research on various questions related to peace and conflict globally.
- Gender, Ethnicity and Elections, which examines the election of women, ethnic minorities and minority women to national legislatures around the world.
- Governance and Corruption — studying corruption and electoral outcomes; patronage jobs in developing countries; financial transparency and money laundering; and more
- Human Vulnerability — analyzing factors that put some human subjects at higher risk for negative outcomes in social science research.
- Political Economy and Sovereignty — conducting research on the political economy of indigenous lands, territories and dependencies, which face many of the promises and pitfalls of sovereignty.
- Reimagining Safety and Security — examining issues related to policing, including recruiting and training programs, citizen/civilian oversight, transparency and accountability mechanisms, use of force, budgeting, equity, organizational management, community engagement and reform initiatives.
- Science Politics — studying the ways in which politicians leverage scientific uncertainty for their own ends.
- Weaponizing Waste — studying how and why developing countries are intervening in the industry built around international trade in post-consumer waste.
Weaver will teach a course on Data for Development in Spring 2021.