Impact happens in partnership.

World Data Lab works in close partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, through its Africa-based collaboration, on a wide-ranging programme of data-driven research focused on employment, gender, and inclusive economic opportunity. This partnership combines World Data Lab's global economic and demographic modelling with the Foundation's deep commitment to advancing youth employment and gender equity across the African continent.

At the core of the collaboration is a shared objective: to generate rigorous, actionable insights that help governments, institutions, and development partners better understand labour markets, workforce participation, and the evolving role of women and young people in Africa's economies. The partnership spans multiple initiatives, supporting long-term planning, policy development, and evidence-based decision-making to drive inclusive growth at scale.

The European Space Agency (ESA), an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states, has funded World Data Lab's ongoing AgeSpot project, developed in collaboration with GeoVille, the managing partner of the consortium.

By applying new modelling techniques to a range of data, AgeSpot models and forecasts demographic information — specifically, population distribution by age group — at a very granular level. Read more about the work in this Brookings article.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized UN agency dedicated to eradicating rural hunger and poverty, is supporting an upgrade of the World Poverty Clock (linked to the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 1) to allow for data disaggregation by age, gender, and location (rural vs urban), painting a holistic picture of vulnerable populations across the globe.

IFAD is also underwriting the creation of the World Hunger Clock (linked to the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 2), a project which aims to establish a consistent and forecastable approach to modelling hunger for every country in the world.