Rapid Response Grant 2026
Introduction
The Rapid Response Grant (RRG) is one arm of NIERA’s Demand-Driven Research Initiative (DDRI), built to fund short, decision-focused studies in partnership with government and policy makers in Africa. The goal is to turn around evidence for a specific policy or institutional program within shorter periods, rather than the multi-year timelines a randomized control trial runs on.
Meet the Grantees
Eight decision-focused evaluations led by NIERA members are underway across six countries. Each is built around the same test: is there a government or institutional decision on the table right now that evidence can actually move?
Ojiri Enahoro Innocent — Nigeria
Rapid Evidence to Guide Resource Allocation and Digital Extension Scale-Up in Nigeria: A Decision-Focused Evaluation of Agricultural Extension Delivery Channels
Ojiri Innocent is a PhD candidate in Agricultural Economics at the University of Ilorin. His study sits inside a live decision at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security: whether to scale up digital advisory tools, including the National Farmers Helpline and its AI-powered chatbot, or keep resources with in-person extension agents. He is drawing on the NAERLS Annual Agricultural Performance Survey and Farmers Helpline interaction logs, with a field validation survey of farmers in Kaduna and Kano States to estimate the actual effect of digital advisory access on adoption. His co-investigator, Yahaya Musa Kayode, heads the National Farmers Helpline Centre at NAERLS, Ahmadu Bello University, and gives the study a direct line into the datasets and the Ministry itself.
Dr. Nneka Esther Osadolor — Nigeria
Expanding Financial Protection through Microfinance: Evidence from a Health Insurance Bundling Assessment in Nigeria
Nneka Osadolor works out of the Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR) in Nigeria. Her project asks a question the Edo State Health Insurance Commission (SHIC) needs answered before it commits to a distribution strategy: would bundling its informal-sector health cover with microfinance bank loan products actually get people to take up insurance. She is running a discrete choice experiment with 400 microfinance clients to get at willingness to pay, backed by focus groups and interviews with clients, loan officers, and SHIC officials. Omorogbe Owen, her co-principal investigator, sits inside SHIC itself, which means the study is shaped from the start by the institution that would have to act on it.
Dr. Shibiru Ayalew — Ethiopia
Unlocking Rural Finance in Ethiopia: Rapid Evidence on Digital Asset Verification for Collateral-Based Lending
Shibiru Ayalew, based at Adama Science and Technology University, is investigating why smallholder farmers in the Arsi and East Shewa zones still struggle to use livestock and equipment as loan collateral, and whether digital asset verification can fix the trust problem that keeps lenders cautious. His co-investigator, Dr. Teshome Tamirat of the Ethiopian Forestry Development under the Ministry of Agriculture, brings the coordination needed to keep the Oromia Bureau of Agriculture and the National Bank of Ethiopia engaged as the evidence comes in.
Ashagrie Demile — Ethiopia
Strengthening Industrial Resilience: Assessing the Impact of Institutional Stability on FDI-Led Technological Upgrading in Ethiopia
Ashagrie Demile, of the International Finance Corporation in Addis Ababa, is tracing what he calls the “Volatility Tax”: the way political instability between 2014 and 2016 reversed technological gains that foreign direct investment had brought to Ethiopian manufacturing after the 2012 Investment Proclamation. Using firm-level panel data and a dynamic triple difference-in-differences design, he is building a case for Ethiopia’s Post-Conflict Industrial Recovery Roadmap, and the investment climate reforms now under discussion at the Ethiopian Investment Commission and the National Bank of Ethiopia. Laura Magazzini of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa joins as co-investigator on econometric modelling.
Aja Fatou Senghore — The Gambia
Equity and Efficiency in Gambian Senior Secondary School Admissions: Evidence on Preference-Based Cutoffs and Student Outcomes
Aja Fatou Senghore, of the University of The Gambia, is examining what the country’s preference-priority school admission system actually costs students who get displaced by score inversions under the current rules. She is benchmarking the existing system against a deferred-acceptance alternative and using a regression discontinuity design around the inversion thresholds to isolate the human capital cost involved. Her co-principal investigator, Dr. Amadou Jallow, and policy expert Jarga Gaye both work inside the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, which keeps the study tied to the specific decision MoBSE is weighing on admissions policy.
Dr. Caroline Sitienei Koech — Kenya
Designing Gender-Responsive Childcare Services in Uasin Gishu County Markets, Kenya: Policy Options from a Decision-Focused Evaluation
Caroline Sitienei Koech, a senior lecturer at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, examines what market women in Uasin Gishu County actually need from childcare services while they trade, and works directly with the Uasin Gishu County Government to turn that evidence into policy options on market infrastructure and social protection. Edwin Korir handles county liaison, enumerator supervision, and field coordination.
Muthoni Ng’ang’a — Kenya
Evaluating Teacher Technology Integration and Training in Frontier Counties in Kenya
Muthoni Ng’ang’a, an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Victoria in Canada, is evaluating the Frontier County Development Council’s ICT Ambassador Training Program, a cascade model run with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and UNICEF, in Samburu and Isiolo counties. Her study follows the training pipeline from county trainer to teacher ambassador to classroom teacher, checking where fidelity and reach hold up and where they break down, ahead of FCDC’s planned expansion to 211 schools in 2026/27. Laura Barasa, a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, leads on stakeholder engagement and dissemination, and Abdiaziz Abdikadir Ahmed, a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town, is mentored through the project while handling field data collection and qualitative analysis.
Ronald Mulebeke — Uganda
HIV Care Among Displaced Populations in Uganda: A Decision-Focused Evaluation to Inform Scalable Retention Strategies
Ronald Mulebeke is examining HIV treatment retention among displaced and refugee populations in Uganda’s refugee-hosting districts, using facility record abstraction alongside interviews with patients and clinic staff to find retention strategies that could realistically scale against the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. He is coordinating directly with Uganda’s Ministry of Health and the Office of the Prime Minister and has brought in two international collaborators for regional perspective: Dr. Samuel Muhula of Amref Health Africa in Nairobi, and Issah Sumaila of Kintampo Municipal Hospital in Ghana, who adds a comparative view from Ghana’s own HIV program experience.
Read a detailed description of the studies and research team on our latest projects page here.