Keith Ives is a development economist passionate about generating and using rigorous evidence to maximize the impact of foreign assistance. He is the co-founder of Causal Design, a social enterprise specializing in data-driven policy analysis and poverty research. Keith is a global expert in impact evaluation and has pioneered its use in humanitarian programming. Previously, he led research for The World Bank (DIME), Georgetown University’s Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation (gui2de), and the Liberian and Rwandan Ministries of Agriculture.

Deeply committed to aid effectiveness and philanthropic accountability, Keith was a Pablo Eisenberg Public Interest Fellow, has taught graduate-level courses on prioritizing and evaluating aid, and served as the Senior Advisor for Humanitarian Monitoring and Research on USAID’s Humanitarian Assistance Evidence Cycle Award.

Keith’s path to international development began in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he led Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom and received awards for excellence in leadership and combat logistics. This foundational experience inspired his early humanitarian logistics roles with the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).