Introducing J-PAL Middle East & North Africa: Building Partnerships to Accelerate Poverty Reduction and Foster Evidence-Informed Policy in MENA
Partners:
J-PAL is proud to announce the launch of its newest regional office, J-PAL Middle East and North Africa, based at the American University in Cairo’s School of Business and launching in collaboration with Community Jameel.
The global public health crisis and related economic slowdown pose unprecedented challenges for policymakers across the MENA region. Decisions must be made rapidly, under changing circumstances, and in an increasingly constrained fiscal environment. Insights about evidence-based policies and cost-effective approaches that can deliver results and do more with limited resources can help policymakers as they prepare for a long recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
While there is relatively little rigorous evidence from the MENA region today, J-PAL is working with partners to change that fact. For almost a decade, J-PAL affiliates, research teams, and implementing organizations have been working across the region designing and running some of the region’s first randomized evaluations to test the impact of innovative social programs. Together they have gathered insights that can help governments and development practitioners to make policy decisions. To accelerate this work, today J-PAL is proud to announce the launch of its newest regional office, J-PAL Middle East and North Africa, based at the American University in Cairo’s School of Business and launching in collaboration with Community Jameel.
Please join us for a webinar to introduce J-PAL MENA at AUC, and to hear from J-PAL affiliated professors, research collaborators, and implementing organizations from government and NGOs about how evidence can be used to improve program effectiveness, and how we can draw from global expertise to find globally-informed and locally-grounded solutions to the region’s most pressing challenges. In this webinar we will be focusing on our research partnerships that test solutions addressing policy issues that are most relevant in the wake of COVID19: youth unemployment, the growth of SMEs, and social protection for vulnerable and populations living in extreme poverty. The webinar will also introduce J-PAL MENA’s research agenda and how we can help to support governments and NGOs across the region in using evidence as part of their COVID-19 recovery planning.