Gender and Economic Agency Request for Proposals

Overview

J-PAL’s Gender and Economic Agency (GEA) Initiative funds randomized evaluations of strategies to enhance women’s economic agency. In a unique opportunity, GEA will broaden its focus to explore the causal relationship between women's economic empowerment and family planning as well as a broader range of topics in women's economic agency than in previous rounds.

Competitive research funding will be available for full research projects, including add-on funding to existing full RCTs, and pilot studies. Interested applicants with questions should email [email protected].

Timeline

In 2025, GEA will host one call for proposals from eligible researchers for full research projects and pilot studies. Letters of Interest for this RFP will be due on February 6th, 2025, and full proposals will be due on March 17th, 2025. More detailed information will be available on this website closer to the launch date, January 9, 2025.

Priority Themes

In a unique opportunity, GEA will broaden its focus to explore the causal relationship between women's economic empowerment and family planning as well as a broader range of topics in women's economic agency than in previous rounds. 

1. WEE and Family Planning. Understand the bi-directional causal relationship between women's economic empowerment and family planning, and the broader impact on women's and children's health outcomes, with a regional focus in Africa and South Asia.
   • Understanding how family planning impacts women's economic empowerment
   • Understanding how women's economic empowerment impacts family planning and women's and children's health outcomes
2. Women's Economic Agency and Livelihoods. Promote women's work and enhance women's economic agency across a wide range of topics and intervention types in Central America, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

Eligibility

Any J-PAL affiliate, J-PAL invited researcher, or J-PAL postdoc will be eligible to apply. Ph.D. students who have a J-PAL affiliate or invited researcher as an advisor will also be eligible for funding. 

Application Instructions

WizeHive, the new grant management system J-PAL is using for our proposals, is more user-friendly. You will submit your application, including relevant attachments, through WizeHive. It will, however, require a new login. Please use the Application Instructions and follow the prompts in the links below to create a new login.

• For pilot studies: [Application link will be available on January 9, 2025]
• For full randomized evaluation research projects: [Application link will be available on January 9, 2025]

The GEA team will notify you via WizeHive once we have reviewed your LOI if you are invited to submit a full proposal. In the interim, to facilitate your proposal development, we have included reference application documents below that outline in detail all required information that applicants will be asked when submitting a full proposal to GEA via our online portal system. You are welcome to begin drafting your proposal materials using these templates. Please, however, do not complete or submit these reference documents to GEA for consideration.

General tips for proposal development

For general advice on developing a successful proposal, please visit our Research Resource page on grant proposals.