Our Partnership with University of Notre Dame .

Chemonics partners with the University of Notre Dame through three initiatives: Notre Dame’s Visiting Associate’s program, a Data for Development course, and the Pulte Institute’s Integration Lab (i-Lab), a core component of the university’s Master of Global Affairs degree program.

Visiting Associate’s program. Through the Visiting Associates Program, senior global development professionals can apply to work with professors to develop an evidence-based policy document on key topics in global development. Through the i-Lab, the university pairs small student teams with global development partners and private sector innovators to generate research that supports solutions toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Data for Development course. Additionally, Notre Dame and Chemonics created a graduate-level, three-course certificate titled “Data for Development” to strengthen our global workforce’s understanding and use of data.

Integration Lab (i-Lab). The i-Lab students and their professors partner with Chemonics’ technical experts to improve development outcomes by researching critical challenges and identifying innovative, effective approaches that will further our impact. One team studied engaging the private sector in market-based solutions to traditional government challenges, identifying best practices that guide Chemonics’ work now. Another i-Lab team supported local systems in environmental stewardship and natural resource conservation by modernizing and creating guidance for a successful method of engaging local communities in participatory land-use management. A third team focused on assessing the use of third-party logistics providers throughout different regions in Ghana and included a country visit to collect data, with the study results informing our health commodities distribution practices. The fourth team is conducting a comparative study of trends and improvements in data, seeking to establish causality related to last-mile data interventions in Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, and Togo. The research will include an assessment of the improvements, the technologies used, and the cost of each intervention, and will examine how to develop a complementary and innovative system that builds on existing systems in each country.