Structure

The IGC is led by Executive Director, Jonathan Leape along with Directors Robin Burgess, Professor of Economics at the LSE, and Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Oxford. Strategic vision is provided by the Steering group, which also includes Oriana Bandiera (LSE), Farzana Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute), Nada Eissa (Georgetown University), and Chang-Tai Hsieh (University of Chicago). The Executive Director leads a senior management team, which includes the Communications and Development Director, Sarah Lyness; Programme and Impact Director, Ella Spencer; Operations Director, Nick Dale; and Finance Director, Claudia Niruban.

IGC’s global research network is led by Research Programme Directors, who are top international researchers on growth. Country leadership teams – Country Directors and Lead Academics – lead policy engagement in our partner countries, supported by full-time Country economists and the London hub. The IGC’s 12 country offices provide an open platform to bring leading researchers and senior policymakers together and support long term policy engagement.

Research and Policy influence

IGC’s knowledge creation and policy engagement are driven by two complementary commissioning mechanisms. The first is the regularly held open international call for proposals, on research and policy questions identified by research and country teams. These calls ensure that the IGC is drawing on the deepest possible pool of international researchers and is open to innovative ideas and policy solutions. The four thematic commissioning boards are chaired by global leaders in the field, and include research programme directors and country leadership teams. Country teams can also commission research through a second, more flexible mechanism, which allows them to respond to emerging policy windows with bespoke projects tailored to policymaker needs. All research is assessed for its contribution to existing academic and policy knowledge, academic rigour, and relevance and responsiveness to policy needs.

Dual commissioning processes generate high-value research and policy findings, which are then communicated and built into broader efforts to influence growth policy at national, regional, and global levels. Our in-country teams have proven to be highly successful at influencing national policy decisions and designs. Whilst on the global level, the reputation for thought leadership and academic quality cultivated by the IGC’s academic network presents a strong platform from which academic research can be leveraged to influence global debates.

Funding

The IGC has been majority funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) since its founding. We also receive funding for our research and policy engagement work from several other organisations.