Training Researchers, Policymakers and Practitioners

Humanitarian action research incubators

J-PAL Europe and Innovations for Poverty Action regularly host humanitarian action research incubators tailored to the needs of organisations whose activities aim to promote sustainable livelihoods, self-reliance and socio-economic inclusion for displaced persons and host communities or promote solutions that ensure humanitarian protection outcomes. These incubators help such organisations explore how randomised evaluations can complement their evaluation, learning and innovation toolkit and lay the foundations for fruitful collaboration with researchers who can apply for impact evaluation funding.

Participant organisations with promising research questions benefit from support before, during and after the incubator workshop from J-PAL staff and researchers, who work with participants along the path towards developing a randomised evaluation. Workshop participants leave well-positioned to partner with researchers who can apply to a recurring call for research proposals run as part of the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative and the Humanitarian Protection Initiative. 

The summer school for development methodologies incubator

As part of the Development Methodologies Summer School, J-PAL and the Fund for Innovation in Development co-organise yearly incubators for project implementers who are currently supported by FID and wish to deepen their understanding of impact evaluations. Selected participants take part in a training programme that combines lectures and practical group work sessions where participants workshop the randomised evaluation of their own innovative solution. Thanks to this incubator, participants are better equipped to apply for FID grants.

The summer school for development methodologies academic track 

J-PAL Europe runs yearly summer schools for African researchers who wish to enhance their capacity to conduct impact evaluations. These summer schools are co-organised in partnership with the French Development Agency, the Fund for Innovation in Development and a local academic partner in the host country, and are implemented as part of the "Development Methodologies" Professorship held by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. Researchers are selected based on a call for applications and take part in a 4-day advanced course combining methodological lectures and practical workshops where participants present their RCTs and receive feedback from J-PAL affiliates and peer researchers. 

To this day, summer schools have been held in Abidjan (2022) and in Rabat (2023 and 2024). More to come on the next summer school edition.

The IDEE programme’s academic trainings

The Innovation, Data and Experiments in Education (IDEE) programme proposes a diversity of courses targeted at researchers who want to further enhance their capacity to conduct rigorous impact evaluations. These in-person courses facilitated by the J-PAL Europe team are delivered in-person and focus on equipping selected researchers with the tools and good practices to conduct randomised impact evaluations In June 2024, these courses were delivered over two days at the Paris School of Economics. These courses are delivered separately as short training opportunities across the academic year at partner institutions.

The IDEE programme’s “Où sont les preuves ?” (Where is the evidence?) training 

The objective of the Où sont les preuves? workshop is to raise awareness about the key questions and concepts needed to critically assess effectiveness claims in education. The training provides practical tools allowing participants with a range of backgrounds (such as policymakers and other education stakeholders) to examine claims coming from different sources (media, experts, impact evaluations, etc.) and addresses the methodological and practical issues that make impact evaluations rigorous and reliable sources that can inform decision-making. The workshop is facilitated by the J-PAL Europe team and can be delivered in person and/or online. It has been delivered at national and sub-national level in France. 

An evidence use training for GIZ

J-PAL Europe’s collaboration with GIZ aimed to pilot and assess a scalable model for increasing the use of rigorous impact evaluation in the design of new projects at GIZ, with the goal of ultimately contributing to more effective development programming. One major component of this collaboration was a training on evidence use for GIZ staff. The short online training on evidence use aimed to address barriers to effectively using rigorous evidence within GIZ by providing staff with the skills to source, assess and apply research findings to project design. Leveraging J-PAL's extensive experience in training policymakers and practitioners, the module was delivered through three interactive 90-minute online sessions. These sessions covered:

• What is evidence? Fundamentals of evidence types and evaluation methods

• How to search and assess evidence quality

• How to generalise and apply evidence to project design using real-life case studies. 

The training incorporated structured discussions, practical examples and J-PAL’s generalisability framework, ensuring a tailored approach to meet the specific capacity-building needs of GIZ staff.

The IDEE programme’s MOOC “Evidence-informed education: An introduction to impact evaluations”

The French-language “Evidence-informed education: an introduction to impact evaluations” MOOC developed by J-PAL Europe’s IDEE programme aims to:

• Raise awareness about the added value of experimental research and impact evaluations to inform education policy and practice in French speaking countries. 

• Strengthen the capacities of education stakeholders to assess the quality of experimental evidence and to make decisions based on high-quality evidence.

• Encourage education stakeholders to take part in impact evaluations by increasing their understanding of the research process. 

The MOOC’s target audience is education stakeholders in French speaking communities–including policymakers at national or subnational levels, teachers, teachers’ trainers, NGOs, foundations and other funders. 

Civil servants training and certificate programme in Côte d’Ivoire 

In January 2024, J-PAL Europe and Abidjan’s National School of Statistics and Applied Economics (ENSEA - Côte d’Ivoire) co-launched a certificate in public policy evaluation to train Ivorian civil servants in rigorous impact evaluation. This training spans over a period of 9 months and includes:

• An adapted 3-days version of the Evaluating Social Programs course;

• An online course with MITx, from the DEDP MicroMasters (“The Challenges of Global Poverty”); 

• An "incubator" training event where civil servants receive hands-on advice from J-PAL and ENSEA staff to workshop evaluation priorities from their ministries; 

• A colloquium with a training component on evidence use and generalisability, followed by presentations of selected projects. 

The training collaboration welcomes two cohorts of around 30 civil servants per year. 

Our collaboration with the London School of Economics’ 100x Impact Accelerator 

J-PAL Europe works with the 100x Impact Accelerator programme to co-develop and co-deliver their Impact Measurement and Management workstream. The 100x programme identifies, invests in and accelerates the most promising social enterprises that are addressing pressing social problems. The J-PAL team provided individual support to the social ventures, notably through one-on-one meetings and tailored guidance.