Through rigorous data collection and empirical research, Development Research Strategies International works on issues related to international development by using technical methods with high quality up to-date data in order to help better connect the rapidly changing economic and social needs in developing and global contexts with optimal policy solutions.
DRS International is dedicated to produce research that is innovative, applicable, and technically sound in order to help improve development outcomes, taking into account the demand and actual needs of those living in developing areas. We seek to explore the needs of the disadvantaged from a broad perspective including education, health, labor, migration, institutions, environment, macro policies, and all relevant issues that challenge full integration in societies.
Ultimately, we are dedicated to help find innovative and cost effective ways to reduce poverty and inequality, looking first hand at the demand and actual needs of those affected by these problems.
Headquarters:
2936 Garfield Terrace, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel. (202) 556 3770
Created in 2012 by a group of highly experienced researchers, DRS International is an independent non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. and enjoys a 501(c)(3) status in the United States.
DRS international has Regional Offices in Africa (Cameroon), Europe (Italy), Asia (Japan) and Latin America (Peru), which ensures our objective of having a global reach.
OUR MISSION
is to apply
innovative research using better data and methods
in order to find ways to
improve
development outcomes
SERVICES
Impact Evaluation
Our researchers are experts in impact evaluation techniques, including qualitative and quantitative methods and with country experience that range from Mexico and Argentina in Latin America, to Cameroon and Tanzania in Africa, to Bangladesh and India in South Asia..
Public Policy
Our team has vast macro and micro public policy technical experience working with governments around the world as well as with international organizations, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the African Development Bank.
Applied Research
Composed of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, DRS International is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to investigating the multiple and diverse social and economic development needs of people living in disadvantaged contexts from an objective, fact-based perspective.
Survey Design
Our goal is to provide readily available, up-to-date, targeted, and highly useful information that can help develop innovative actions either by the private or the public sector. High quality data are the key input to achieve high quality recommendations.
RECENT PROJECTS
NEW SURVEY INSTRUMENT APPLICATION: PERU, ECUADOR, AND BOLIVIA. ORGANIZATION AND SOFT SKILLS AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS.
Through a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank we designed a survey and collected corresponding data related to “soft skills” on small-sized firms in three countries in Latin America. In addition, we designed and implemented a randomized controlled trial in Peru in order to this study whether soft skills acquisition may be conductive to produce socio-economic changes.
We found that soft skills, while not typically highly regarded in Latin America, appear to be a key component to achieving improved job performance.
The Inter-American Development Bank commissioned us to writing a background report describing the profile of the “Base of the Pyramid” in Latin American and Caribbean countries using updated data. We found that consumers at the base of the pyramid are a very dynamic group with an unexploited pent-up demand.
Firms’ opportunities to penetrate in the areas of education, health, finance, technology, consumer markets, infrastructure, and possibly several others are large. However, findings suggested that firms are not taking advantages of lessons learn from consumer behaviors, making little efforts to adapt their products and improve their timing.
In collaboration with Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE) the most important think-tank in Peru, we designed and performed qualitative studies to better understand the motivations and limitations by which individuals from poor marginal areas in cities lose incentives to integrate themselves to the formal economy, in particular, the formal banking system.
Our results showed that there was a mismatch between supply of banking services and demand of poor urban individuals. The latter did not find the type of services that they needed or required.
We received a grant from Deloitte-USAID whose goal was to identify and develop a set of performance measures used to assess the impact of public expenditure on gender equality. We focused on identifying gender-based health performance indicators, exploring their association with public sector expenditure in Peru. In order to uncover both correlation and causal links. We employed quantitative household survey and government data, as well as qualitative information from focus groups and in-depth interviews with local residents, health care workers, and experts in health research and policy analysis.
The study’s main achievement was to provide practitioners with a set of comprehensive and valid instruments for assessing the impact of public spending on gender-specific health outcomes. In particular, the study placed greater emphasis on the unobserved factors driving these gender-based outcomes.
STRENGTHENING PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Public Expenditure and Gender-Based Health Outcomes: How Mining revenues in Peru could Help Improve Women's Health
Headquarters:
2936 Garfield Terrace, NW
Washington, DC 20008, USA
Tel. (202) 556 3770
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CONTACT
US
Regional Office Europe
Corso Milano, 63, 5to Piano, 35139 Padova PD, Italy
Regional Office Africa
Avenue J. F. Kennedy,
Immeuble Le SintraYaounde Centre BP 4355, Cameroon
Regional Office Asia
c/o Professor Arturo Kohatsu
Yabase-cho 76-17
Kusatsu City, Shiga, Japan