Center for Global Impact
The International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Global Impact cultivates innovative, evidence-based programming and provides resources, tools, and expertise to IRI staff to advance democracy worldwide. The Center also leads IRI’s institutional efforts on monitoring, evaluation, and learning and applied research, ensuring our programs are based on the latest evidence and designed to achieve impact.
The Center is comprised of thematic experts, researchers, and global project staff who help IRI monitor—and develop innovative approaches to address—emerging trends and challenges to democracy.
Together, Center staff enhance IRI’s work on priority thematic areas by identifying and sharing evidence-based practices across the Institute. Priority cross-cutting technical areas include political processes, electoral transitions, governance and anti-corruption, countering foreign authoritarian influence, conflict prevention and stabilization, and digital democracy.
Working closely with IRI’s regional divisions, the Center also manages cross-regional and thematic projects that allow the Institute to develop, test, and scale-up new programming approaches.
Our Experts
Matt
Senior Advisor, Political Parties and Political Engagement
Caitlin
Dearing Scott
Deputy Director, Strategy, Development, and Operations – Center for Global Impact

Natalie
Trisilla
Director, Evidence and Learning – Center for Global Impact

Eguiar
Lizundia
Senior Advisor, Governance and Anti-Corruption,

Katya
Rimkunas
Director for Democracy, Rights, and Governance (DRG) Technical Leadership

Meryl
Miner
Senior Program Manager for Youth and Inclusion

Lauren
Mooney
Senior Specialist for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization

Erin
McMenamin
Senior Program Manager, Legislative Strengthening
Keith
Proctor
Senior Advisor for Evaluation, Research and Learning

Patrick
Quirk, PhD
Vice President for Strategy, Innovation, and Impact
Latest News
We Need to Safeguard Democratic Legislatures Again…
“Nearly everywhere in the world, legislatures are consistently the least popular branch of government — a fact that has been…
Why the Next Democracy Summit Must Go Beyond Civil…
“Democracy was on the agenda at last week’s White House meeting between U.S. president Joe Biden and Brazilian president Luiz…
New Tool to Support Democratic Actors to Apply Str…
Countries undergoing a political transition provide political actors with an important opportunity to expand political participation, enhance service delivery, build…
Advancing a Framework for the Stabilization and Re…
“Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war on Ukraine has shattered peace on the European continent and created tectonic shifts in the…
Why Don’t Voters Care About Local Government?…
“National elections always steal the spotlight. People tend to overlook the far greater number of contests that occur down ballot.…

It Takes a Network: Fighting Kleptocracy with Alli…
Yeddelti Cupul Alonzo works to promote transparency around land deals in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. She’s particularly focused…
IRI Launches Decentralization Resource Guide…
Washington, D.C.— Government decentralization and an accompanying devolution of authority across fiscal, administrative, and political arenas provides citizens with the…
IRI Georgia Poll Shows Economic Concerns, Politica…
Tbilisi, Georgia – A new nationwide poll conducted in Georgia by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research (CISR) reveals concerns over the economy, feelings of…
Strengthening Democracy With the Global Fragility …
“Planning teams from across the U.S. government are racing to begin implementing the long-awaited Global Fragility Act (GFA), after the…
Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a tragic reminder th…
“In 2015, a fire at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest killed 27 people. Over the months following the accident, 37…
Democracy as a Vital Interest: A Realist Approach …
“Pursuing a realist foreign policy and promoting democracy are not mutually exclusive goals but, instead, are reinforcing and responsive to…

IRI’s Monitoring and Evaluation practitioners stre…
Last November, members of IRI’s Evidence and Learning Practice (ELP) virtually attended the 35th annual American Evaluation Association conference. This…
Latest Resources

Shutting Down the Shutdown: Mainstreaming Proactiv…
Copyright © 2023 International Republican Institute. All rights reserved. Permission Statement: No part of this work may be reproduced in…

Guatemala 2023 Elections: A Risk Assessment on the…
Acknowledgments The development of this report was made possible through the writing and research of Hui Hui Ooi and Ana…

Sustaining and Scaling Civic and Government Techno…
A White Paper on Challenges, Best Practices and Recommendations

Protest to Policy: A Framework for Supporting Demo…
Democracy activists and their international partners seek to increase democratic accountability by supporting the stakeholders who channel citizen interests into…

Political Parties Playbook: A Guide for Digitizing…
Acknowledgements The development of this playbook was made possible through the writing and research of Diana Kurth, Maura McCrary and…



Networks Field Guide
Building and supporting networks is central to the advancement of democracy, expansion of human rights, and establishment of good governance.…

The Kleptocrat’s Playbook: A Taxonomy of Localized…
For decades, policymakers have overlooked the threat to security, prosperity and democracy posed by transnational corruption and global kleptocracy. These…

Field Guide for Democracy, Human Rights, and Gover…
Violent conflict has posed a major threat to providing accountable and democratic governance to citizens the world over. In addition…