Projects and Publications

Current Projects

Regional Governance Activity (RGA)
​Project Lead: Dr. Mike Findley
​The evaluation of a USAID intervention to improve government capacity and fiscal accountability in Colombia. Our researchers are conducting analysis for the midline assessment of a longitudinal study on the program, to find out which differences between control and treatment municipalities can be attributed to the RGA program.
​Publications and analysis forthcoming!

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Grant
Project Lead: Paul Kuhne
​This initiative aims to win an exciting grant managed by Yale's Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) research center. The grant itself will allow us to conduct rigorous analysis of monitoring systems in peacekeeping programs around the world.
​More developments to come!


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Privatized Security and Military Contractors
​Project Lead: Jae Kwon
This initiative run under the research guidance of Dr. Ori Swed, builds a unprecedented database to detail the growth of private security industry. Specifically, the researchers find information on private security and military contractors, and inputs essential information on their contracts with state and private actors. Eventually, the database will serve as a first-of-its-kind knowledge hub for the analysis of how and why private firms are getting security contracts, and with what consequences.

Research Paper on Recruitment and Utilization of Combatants
Project Lead: Josh Meuth Alldredge
This project analyzes new quantitative and qualitative data collected by our partners at Cifras & Conceptos (a data firm) in Colombia. Using information gathered through surveys, interviews, and judicial sentencing records, we're exploring how ex-combatants of military factions in Colombia were recruited in the past, and what social factors may have pushed those outcomes. We anticipate publishing our findings in May. ​

Past Projects / Publications 

Data4Peace Hackathon
Project Lead: Dr. Mike Findley.
Co-organized in May 2017 by University of Texas and the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, brought together municipal leaders, security officials, civil society activists, and academics to discuss the future of the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement. Through rapid analysis (the "hackathon" part) and robust discussion, we generated findings and recommendations for the Colombian government as it works to ensure lasting peace. Read our conference report (in Spanish) here, and our working paper (Spanish) here. 

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