J-PAL LAC at 15: A shared vision for creating a culture of evidence in LAC

As we celebrate fifteen years of J-PAL’s Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) office, we are recapping key milestones and sharing what we have learned in a new blog series titled J-PAL LAC at 15. In these blog posts, you will discover more about our regional office based in Chile at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC Chile), as well as our satellite offices in Brazil at Insper and in Guatemala at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. Throughout this series, we highlight lessons from working with those who make our mission a reality: our donors, implementing partners, J-PAL academic network, and staff.

This first installment spotlights how we work with donors to create a culture of evidence in LAC. Read our other posts that spotlight collaborations with implementing partners to generate and use evidence to scale early childhood development programs, feature exciting results from the Jobs and Opportunity Initiative Brazil, and discuss efforts to strengthen diversity and inclusion throughout our work.

Fifteen years improving lives in LAC

J-PAL LAC was established in the Institute of Economics (IE) of UC Chile in 2009. This was made possible through an initial partnership between Colunga Foundation—a foundation established in 2012 to continue Familia Cueto's tradition of supporting social transformation in Chile—and a group of researchers from IE. Current J-PAL LAC Co-Scientific Directors Francisco Gallego (UC Chile) and Jeanne Lafortune (UC Chile) were part of the pioneer researchers in this early work. 

Since then, J-PAL LAC’s expansion to more countries in the region has been largely thanks to our donors. Learn about some of our most recent partnerships with them:
 

Forging strong relationships in Guatemala

In 2023, we partnered with Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and individual and corporate donors to promote evidence-based decision-making in Guatemala. Establishing a satellite office in a prestigious university and a team working in the country have increased collaboration with key actors, such as local researchers, the government, and civil organizations, to alleviate poverty. 

The partnership has had several successes in its first year. J-PAL affiliated professor Costas Meghir (Yale) has provided extensive research experience to local researchers and programs as the scientific advisor of the partnership’s inaugural project—dedicated to strengthening research and existing early child development (ECD) programs. We have trained the Government of Guatemala's key staff to strengthen impact evaluation knowledge when monitoring Education and Health programs. Additionally, J-PAL academic researchers and J-PAL LAC staff are providing technical support to two social programs from non-government organizations.

If you would like to participate and support our work in Guatemala, please contact Constanza Alarcón, policy manager at J-PAL LAC, at [email protected].

Empowering communities in Central America

In 2024, thanks to the generous support of the Cotopaxi Foundation, we are helping key ECD, education, and economic agency programs implement effective interventions that pave a way out of poverty in Central America. By focusing on organizations that work on these three topics in a specific region, like Central America, we can address their needs by sharing evidence, strengthening local capacities, and promoting effective interventions to help individuals overcome barriers throughout different stages of life.

Throughout the year, we hosted online and in-person events in Guatemala and Costa Rica to share evidence on education with organizations working in the region. J-PAL affiliate Karen Macours (Paris School of Economics), in a hybrid event, presented findings in her research and relevant evidence on child nutrition to government and local organizations. J-PAL LAC staff provided two free synchronic online courses, on the importance of evaluation and evidence-use and tools for designing and implementing impact evaluations, to key social organizations, strengthening local capacities to act upon that knowledge and fostering research that addresses remaining questions.

If you would like to participate and support our work in Central America, please contact Silvana Leiva, senior research associate at J-PAL LAC, at [email protected]. 

Building knowledge in labor markets in Brazil

In 2021, we launched our first initiative in Brazil, focused on generating scientific evidence on public policies related to pressing challenges in the local labor market: the Jobs and Opportunity Initiative (JOI) Brazil. Thanks to the invaluable support of Fundação Arymax, B3 Social, Fundação Tide Setubal, Potencia Ventures, the Inter-American Development Bank, and Insper. After three years of work, JOI Brazil has a portfolio of seventeen studies around crucial topics such as gender and discrimination in labor markets, job training, and weather conditions' impact on employment, among others. The initiative has also disseminated evidence to provide policymakers with the latest and most relevant lessons to address labor issues in the country.

Funding a J-PAL initiative and generating solutions in a sector that has the potential to alleviate poverty strengthens the ecosystem of evidence. If you are interested in funding an initiative, please contact [email protected]. 

Collaborate with us

The sum of these efforts has enabled J-PAL LAC to expand its work within Chile and the broader LAC region. We are eager to partner with donors to further expand J-PAL LAC's work throughout the region to alleviate poverty. If you would like to learn more about working with J-PAL LAC, please contact J-PAL LAC Executive Director, Paula Pedro, at [email protected].