African Scholar Spotlight: Dr. Solomon Wena Walelign

This post is part of our ongoing series showcasing the work and perspectives of economists from the African continent who are leading randomized evaluations. Through our African Scholars Program, we hope to help create more opportunities for African researchers to advance the research agenda on the continent through randomized evaluations. In this spotlight, we speak with Solomon Wena Walelign from the University of Gondor.

What drew you into the field of development economics and in particular, working with impact evaluations? 

I grew up in a community where I witnessed many people struggling to make ends meet. I saw better-off families—from both the urban and rural areas—moving from bad to worse over time. Many of us went to low-quality public schools with overcrowded classrooms and poorly trained teachers. We struggled to keep up with school activities because we were unprepared due to a lack of early childhood education, even though we enjoyed playing around the school compound with our fellow students. Additionally, I often heard about people being forcibly displaced due to climate-related disasters and conflicts. 

In response to these challenges, I saw government and non-governmental organizations striving to reverse these trends through various interventions: providing early warning systems, changing the school curriculum, introducing an agricultural development-led industrialization strategy, and introducing productive safety net programs, and I remember several NGOs working to help improve security, natural resource management, soil conservation, and education, to name a few. Since upper primary school, I have often asked myself the following questions: Are these NGOs meeting their objectives? Are their interventions sustainable?  Do they have the potential to scale beyond their current beneficiaries to a larger population?

I later realized the work that these NGOs were doing fell under fall under the umbrella of development economics, and these questions can only be answered through rigorous impact evaluations. This realization led me to pursue a bachelor’s degree in economics, where I wrote my thesis on the contribution of NGOs to food security, using the case of German Technical Cooperation in my home region. My method was a simple comparison of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of NGO development activities. However, I later learned that, while this is one of the most common impact evaluation methods, it often leads to inaccurate impact estimates, resulting in incorrect conclusions and policy recommendations. 

This experience shows that the field of Development Economics and impact evaluation has been ingrained in me since my childhood observations. My early interest in these topics inspired me to pursue a career in development economics and apply impact evaluation methods, especially after I took courses on impact evaluations. 

What are your broad research interests? 

My broad research interests include agriculture, education, employment, and peacebuilding, with cross-cutting themes such as conflict, gender, climate change, and digitalization. I focus on employing rigorous impact evaluation and evidence synthesis methods to generate new or synthesized evidence that can support the design and scaling up of policies to address development challenges faced by developing countries.

What are you using initiative funds to do? What research question are you trying to answer and how does it relate to your context?

My research aims to assess the impact of displaced children’s access to education through satellite schools within temporary shelters. By doing so, it generates evidence for a policy challenge in Ethiopia, where millions of children face barriers to attending school due to internal displacement, leading to rising illiteracy rates and extending intergenerational challenges, such as poverty and inequality. Moreover, existing schools in the areas of interest are incapable of accommodating displaced children; and returning to their original schools, as many hoped, is not feasible due to the protracted nature of conflicts. As a result, internally displaced children are excluded from the formal educational system.
The proposal development fund will be used to identify potential implementing and research partners, select study sites, and assess the feasibility of the intervention.

What do you see are the big unanswered research questions in your context that randomized evaluations may be able to help answer? Does this relate to any projects you are excited to work on in the future? 

I often wonder why many communities in developing countries engage in violence and conflict. Even more troubling, some countries that were once examples of peace have slipped into ongoing conflict, while others continue to experience coup after coup. Something must be done, and more evidence-based, rigorous impact evaluation is essential to reverse the situation. One related research question is: how do interventions that promote intergroup contact reduce conflict and violence? This is one of my active research areas, and I will continue working on studies addressing this question.

How has the support you have received from J-PAL to date assisted you in your career? How can organizations like J-PAL continue to build on the support they provide to local researchers in running randomized evaluations?

J-PAL provides wide-ranging support that extends beyond funding research. J-PAL offers opportunities and resources for research teams to participate in conferences and courses—particularly J-PAL’s Evaluation of Social Programs course. This support helps build networks for future collaborations and allows teams to apply the methods learned in future studies.

Do you have advice to offer other young aspiring African Scholars thinking about a career in economic research?

Focus on economic research that makes a difference in people's lives by influencing policy, by engaging all relevant stakeholders from the research inception to policy implementation.

What advice would you give to scholars who are considering applying to J-PAL for funding?

Identify a salient research problem that is a high policy priority in the given context, develop innovative solutions to address or mitigate the problem, and engage—through a clear plan—all potential implementing and research partners.

What are some of the key mistakes you made in your early applications?

I used to prioritize the technical aspects of the proposal and provide less detail on the context of the problem, which should be presented as succinctly as possible while still being detailed enough for the technical aspects of the project.

What surprised you the most about how the funding process works?

The process from the funding decision to the first funding installment is often lengthy. As a result, careful planning is needed when implementing the evaluation with the implementing partner.