Organisational Profile
Who We Are
Institute for Policy Alternatives (IPA) is a public policy think-tank whose vision is to be the center of excellence for practice-research interfaces and citizen engagement on alternative policy analysis, development and pro-poor advocacy.
IPA has as its mission the promotion of policy alternatives in Africa, by combining the efforts of researchers with those of practitioners to establish perspectives, experiences and new, more engaging paradigms for development that focus on the rights of citizens and communities.
IPA also supports Ghanaian policy makers and practitioners to undertake development research, learning and practice, thereby giving meaning, intellectual relevance and empirical challenge to those involved in policy development and advocacy.
IPA is located in Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana.
Why IPA
The rising tide of globalization suggests that growth and prosperity are assured with closer integration into the global political economy. Yet everywhere, forces of mass production, consumption and concentration of power and wealth tend to decimate the fragile fabric of communities, culture, traditions and livelihoods. This tension led a group of development professionals immersed in the practice of development at the community, national and international levels to establish IPA. As an institution, IPA has initiated a dynamic process of examining alternative development policy options that seek to integrate economic performance and social progress with cultural richness and social diversity for the benefits of citizens in Africa.
How do I Get Involved with IPA
Fellows:
IPA Fellows are development professionals, practitioners and academics who have an interest in sharing their experiences with organizations of civil society and with state and non-state actors. Fellows will champion alternative frameworks for policy analysis upon which IPA will conduct knowledge-sharing seminars and action-based research.
Research Associates:
IPA research associates are a core group of young graduates with an interest in operational and action research on community-based social, economic and development policies.
Partners:
IPA partners are individuals, organizations of civil society and institutions that have an interest in alternative policy development and practice. Partners are designated by mutual agreement with IPA to support or engage in research and action on policy alternatives.
What We Do
Our activities at IPA include the following:
Training:
Short training courses for high level development practitioners on policy analysis.
Longer training courses for development practitioners and professionals, comprising research based training at IPA followed up by fieldwork engagement.
International and Ghanaian student training and internships with development organizations.
Capacity Building for African Parliaments:
Training of leadership of Parliamentary committees from African countries on community monitoring of poverty.
Training and support for staff of African Parliaments.
Facilitating the interface between African Parliaments and Civil Society Organizations in supporting Parliamentary oversight of poverty reduction.
Development Dialogues:
Local development dialogues called "Labare". Development practitioners engaged in the Northern Regions of Ghana are challenged through research-based presentations and discussions on essential development and public policy-related issues. In these dialogues, practitioner perspectives are challenged by citizen voices.
Policy Seminars where IPA brings together national and international development practitioners, researchers and international development partners for debate and exploration of development concepts. The policy seminars include bringing the participants to the field to observe and engage with communities, including stakeholders of the poor on their perspectives and experiences of development.
Research activities:
A series of research projects undertaken by IPA serves as the foundation for the development dialogues and policy seminars and provide input for the various training programs at the institute. IPA research focuses mainly on issues within the field of poverty reduction and wellbeing, monitoring and evaluation, decentralization, gender advocacy, peace-building and conflict management, integration in West Africa. These are all underscored by citizen-based approaches and perspectives.
Advocacy:
IPA aims at giving back the process of policy making, opinion leadership and policy dialogue to public participation, citizen engagement and scrutiny. Through advocacy activities, IPA promotes a pro-poor approach to poverty reduction and wellbeing on the local, national and international levels.