Uniting Five Founding Organizations for Impact
The Africa POWER Consortium brings together five leading organizations—AFIDEP, AidData, EconInsight, IDinsight, and Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. Each organization provides unique expertise to drive meaningful collaborative change.
African Institute for Development Policy
AFIDEP is an African-led institution primarily focused on translating research evidence into actionable policies, particularly in population dynamics, health, education, environment & climate, and governance and accountability.
regions
African countries
areas of focus
health, education, environment, and governance sectors
Naa Dodua Dodoo
Tabitha Ngwira
AidData
AidData focuses on connecting decision-makers and researchers who share an interest in working together using granular data and innovative tools to solve pressing problems, precisely target resources, and use rigorous evidence to measure the impacts—intended and unintended—of policies and investments.
Katherine Nolan is a Research Scientist in AidData's Research and Evaluation Unit where she conducts impact evaluations on health, gender, and agriculture projects. She co-leads AidData's Gender Equity in Development initiative, and focuses on bringing AidData's geospatial and research expertise to the gender space. Her expertise lies in household surveys, randomized and retrospective evaluations, data management and analysis, and geospatial analysis.
Katherine Nolan
Rachel Sayers is a Research Scientist at AidData's Research and Evaluation Unit, where she co-leads AidData's Gender Equity in Development initiative. She combines econometric and GIS analysis methods to design and conduct rigorous evaluations with an emphasis on causal identification. Rachel holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University, and her primary research interests are labor markets, human capital, household bargaining, and gender.
Rachel Slayers
Jessica Wells is a Research Scientist in AidData's Research and Evaluation Unit. Jessica conducts research at the intersection of gender and development. She works on projects analyzing land tenure systems and gender dynamics. She is a co-creator of AidData's new Gender Equity in Development initiative, which focuses on bringing AidData's geospatial and research expertise to gendered development research.
Jessica Wells
Boston University Global Development Policy Center
HCI at BU's GDP Center aims to advance interdisciplinary research on the role of human capital in human development to inform policy solutions to global challenges, including poverty, women’s empowerment, and sustainable economic growth through investments in education and health.
Naomi Frim-Abrams is the project coordinator for POWER. She is based at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, within the Human Capital Initiative. She is interested in gender equity and development, with a specific focus on cities and the environment.
Naomi Frim - Abrams
Mahesh Karra is an Associate Professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, the Associate Director of the Human Capital Initiative at the Global Development Policy Center, and Director of POWER. His academic and research interests are broadly in development economics, health economics, quantitative methods, and applied demography. His research utilizes experimental and non-experimental methods to investigate the relationships between population, health, and economic development in low- and middle-income countries.
Mahesh Karra
Sarah Vincent is the POWER Post-doctoral Research Fellow since August 2024. She is based at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. Her research interests lie at the intersection of development economics, health economics, economic history and political economy, focusing on gender issues and sexual and reproductive health.
Sarah Vincent
EconInsight
EconInsight provides economic consulting services, specializing in applying economic analysis to competition, regulation, and policy issues.
regions
Africa, Asia, and Latin America
areas of focus
infrastructure, energy, and public policy
Tigabu D Getahun (PhD) is a lead researcher at the Ethiopian Policy Studies institute, Managing director of EconInsight –center for Development Research. He served as a senior researcher at the University of Bonn from 2015 to 2024. Dr. Getahun obtained PhD degree in agricultural economics from university of Bonn and master’s degree in development economics from University of Copenhagen and BA degree in economics from Addis Ababa University. He has more than 15 years’ of experience and an excellent track record of leading complex data collection and impact evaluation projects. He is widely published in the field of development economics.
Tigabu D Getahun
Melese Sitotaw
IDinsight
IDinsight uses data and evidence to help development organizations make informed decisions, primarily through tailored research and evaluation services.
countries
India, Kenya, the Philippines, and Zambia
areas of focus
health, education, and governance
Valentina Brailovskaya
T. Arthur Chibwana
Ebenezer is a research associate at IDinsight, where he works on a diverse portfolio of projects, including impact evaluations, M&E, process evaluations, and implementation advisory. His work spans sectors such as education, livelihoods, gender-sensitive studies, women's empowerment, WASH, social protection, and legal empowerment.
Ebenezer Chulu