We turn bright ideas into real results - and here's the proof.
It can take a while for innovations to scale. The working paper below contains a deep analysis of the impacts of DIV's investments during its first three years.
Direct
Beneficiaries
for Every
$1 Spent
Michael Kremer, Sasha Gallant, Olga Rostapshova, and Milan Thomas' working paper develops an approach to assess whether the social rate of return on an innovation portfolio exceeds a benchmark even when data are limited, and then applies that approach to the early portfolio of USAID's DIV. The paper finds that DIV's overall portfolio of investments returned over $5 for every dollar spent.
Ten innovations in DIV's early portfolio have scaled to over one million users.
Software for CHWsVoter Report Cards
Election Monitoring Technology
Affordable Glasses for Presbyopia
Road Safety Stickers
Water Treatment Dispensers
Digital Attendance Monitoring
Psychometric Credit Assessment
Mobile Agriculture Extension
Home Solar Systems
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Off-Grid Solar Investments in East Africa
USAID’s Office of Economic Policy in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment conducted a cost-benefit analysis of DIV investments in four off-grid solar energy companies. The analysis found that DIV’s $8.4 million investment created an overall economic gain of $17 million in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Which Innovations Reach More Than 100,000 or One Million People? Evidence from the DIV Portfolio
Michael Kremer, DIV's Scientific Director, and Esther Duflo reviewed the first three years of DIV's portfolio (2010-2012). They find that the 43 innovations supported in those initial years reached 24 million people at a cost per person of only $0.75, with five innovations reaching more than one million people and six other reaching over 100,000 people.
