Lab de l’Innovation et de l'Évaluation au Maroc

Photo Credit: UM6P

Le Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab vise à promouvoir l’utilisation de preuves scientifiques rigoureuses pour améliorer l’efficacité des politiques et programmes au Maroc et pour que la recherche soit traduite en actions concrètes, contribuant ainsi au développement de long terme du pays.

Aperçu

L’Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (UM6P) s’associe au Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) du MIT et au Harvard Center for International Development (CID) pour créer le Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab (MEL). Le Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab s’appuie sur les fondations du Lab de l’Emploi Maroc, créé en 2020 en partenariat avec le Millenium Challenge Account - Morocco Agency (MCA-Morocco) et hébergé par le Policy Center for the New South. Avec le soutien de Community Jameel,le MEL élargit son domaine de recherche au-delà de l’emploi pour inclure les secteurs de l’éducation, de la protection sociale, du développement des entreprises, de l’agriculture et de l’environnement.

Le MEL collabore étroitement avec les secteurs public, privé, associatif et philanthropique au Maroc pour mener des évaluations qui répondent à leurs priorités et partager des preuves rigoureuses pour informer leurs décisions.

Collaborateurs

Key facts

Secteurs : Marchés de l’emploi, Éducation, Protection sociale, Entreprises, Environnement, Agriculture

Bureau : J-PAL MENA

Directeurs : Bruno Crépon, Rema Hanna, Florencia Devoto

Contacts : Maria Rhomari, Sara Ameziane Hassani

Activities

Research

Working with implementing partners in Morocco, J-PAL affiliated professors and CID faculty affiliates conduct rigorous impact evaluations that answer key development questions via cutting-edge tools. The foundation of our research approach is the randomized evaluation: a methodology that randomly selects program and comparison groups, implements the program, and compares outcomes across groups to identify causal impacts.

Policy

The MEL identifies research questions relevant to decision-makers in Morocco and shares research results and policy recommendations to ensure that evidence informs policy decisions. We help local actors that are interested in evaluating their programs to identify and work with researchers in the J-PAL and CID network to conduct new evaluations and to scale up programs based on rigorous evidence.

Education and training

To foster a culture of evidence-based policymaking, one of the MEL’s primary goals is to build Moroccan decision-makers and academics’ capacity to generate and use rigorous research. Our training resources include a variety of practitioner- and academic-focused workshops and certificate courses tailored to the needs of participants.

Equipe

Florencia Devoto (Project Director, MEL, J-PAL MENA)

Jamila Ayoub (Administrative and Finance Officer, MEL, J-PAL MENA)

Quentin Daviot (Research Manager, EVAL-LAB)

Maria Rhomari (Policy Manager, MEL, JPAL-MENA)

Sara Ameziane Hassani (Policy Associate, MEL, JPAL-MENA)

Events

Upcoming

Check back for upcoming events.

Past

Evaluating Social Programs Training (July 3 - 5, 2024)

About forty participants from public institutions, international and non-profit organizations seeking to learn about rigorous impact evaluations participated in this comprehensive three-day training course at UM6P on evaluating social programs (ESP). Taught by J-PAL affiliated professors and senior staff, the training marked the official re-launch of the MEL and its commitment to evidence-based policy implementation and also included a networking session between participants and researchers as well as between international and local academics.

Experimentation and Evaluation Put Forward as Key to Morocco's Development (May 25, 2021)
In this event, the chairman of Morocco’s Special Commission for the Development Model presented the report on the New Development Model to His Majesty King Mohammed VI. The mandate of the Commission was to analyze the Kingdom's current development path and to outline a new development model, relying on a broad participative approach.

Training of Trainers for the Building Capacity to Use Research Evidence Program (March 23 – April 2, 2021)
This "Training of Trainers" workshop equipped Moroccan instructors to teach Harvard EPoD’s Building Capacity to Use Research Evidence (BCURE) blended learning curriculum, with the goal of improving the technical skills and motivation needed to increase data and evidence use among policymakers.

Learning How, Why, and When to Use Randomized Evaluations to Rigorously Measure Social Impact (March 1-9, 2021)
This seven-day, online executive education course provided participants with an in-depth look at how, why, and when randomized evaluations can be used to rigorously measure the impact of social policies and programs.

Smart policy design and implementation framework to improve labor markets in Morocco (October 13, 2020)
This second training event led by the Morocco Employment Lab (MEL) aimed at explaining the Smart Policy Design and Implementation (SPDI) framework for rigorous evaluation applied to labor policy in Morocco.

Leading evidence-based labor policies in Morocco (October 5-6, 2020)
This first training event led by the Morocco Employment Lab (MEL) gathered senior officials from key labor market institutions.

Publications

In partnership with the Ministry of National Education, Preschool, and Sports (MENPS), the Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab (MEL) conducted an impact evaluation of the Pioneer School Program, which was introduced in 626 public primary schools during the 2023/24 academic year. Using a non-experimental method, the evaluation demonstrated that the program, which integrates structured pedagogy, targeted remediation, and teacher specialization among others, produced significant positive effects on student learning. Notably, the overall impact, recorded at 0.9 standard deviations, is one of the largest ever measured for a government-implemented initiative, with positive effects across both subjects and grade levels. The study was led by Hosam Ibrahim (University of Minnesota), J-PAL invited researcher Andreas de Barros (University of California, Irvine), Sarah Deschênes (World Bank), and J-PAL affiliate Paul Glewwe (University of Minnesota).

COVID-19 in Morocco: Labor Market Impacts and Policy Responses

The COVID-19 in Morocco: Labor Market Impacts and Policy Responses report presents an analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Moroccan economy, focusing on labor markets. The objective of the paper is to inform the Moroccan government’s pandemic response. The paper was prepared by the Morocco Employment Lab, a project led by the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at the Harvard Kennedy School, and hosted at the Policy Center for the New South, a local Moroccan think-tank. You can read the full paper here in English.