J-PAL Latin America and the Caribbean

Letter from the Executive Director

At J-PAL LAC we aim to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean through the generation and use of rigorous evidence, and ensuring that evidence influences policymaking. J-PAL academics and our staff work with our partners daily to support the generation of rigorous research that answers crucial questions for the region. 

Currently, the J-PAL LAC office directly supports the implementation of more than 30 research projects, and J-PAL initiatives and programs are funding 18 projects in the region. These efforts, combined with the research that J-PAL affiliates are carrying out on their own, help us understand how decision-makers can design more effective policies for LAC, but also for other regions facing similar challenges. 

In Guatemala, for example, we are studying how early childhood programs can be scaled up in different contexts. 

In Brazil, we are working to improve the quality of preschools in some states. Through the Jobs and Opportunities Initiative in Brazil, we funded seventeen projects focused on improving labor market conditions. 

We are paving the way for pushing the research frontier. In 2024, we launched the Early Work Seminar Series for researchers to present and receive feedback from their peers on the design of randomized evaluations related to labor markets and early childhood development. 

And, we celebrate when evaluations from J-PAL's academic network addressing crucial topics in LAC are published in top economics journals, while directly influencing policy. This year, a study from J-PAL affiliate Enrique Seira and coauthors on improving labor courts in Mexico was published in the Review of Economic Studies. His findings, which influenced labor law reforms in 2019, showed that providing additional information and a mediator in hearings helps resolve disputes faster and improves workers' lives. This example demonstrates how rigorous research can drive meaningful change.

At J-PAL LAC, we work every day to create innovative ways to close the bridge between researchers and policymakers.

With the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), we jointly launched the Visiting Researcher Program to embed academics from the J-PAL network in the IDB. The first cycle of the program focuses on key topics for Latin America and the Caribbean: enforcement of government initiatives, health and elderly care, energy and climate change, citizen security and justice, and ensuring an equitable transition to a low-carbon economy. This collaboration will create new insights and ensure evidence is used to inform real-world policy decisions.

We also affect policy by working directly with governments. 

We have ongoing partnerships with government agencies in Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru to support them to design and improve programs that tackle key areas like education, early childhood, gender, environment, and housing. Through technical assistance and training, support for evaluation, and evidence sharing, we make sure that our partners make sound decisions and incorporate evaluation and evidence systematically into their work.

In 2024, we engaged in 39 events featuring key research findings to shape policy, emphasizing the value of evaluation, and providing governments and organizations with the tools to leverage evidence for meaningful impact, while simultaneously enhancing impact evaluation capacities through 20 targeted training sessions.

Over 9 years, our Impact Evaluation Diploma, offered with UC Chile, has trained 242 professionals from multilateral organizations, foundations, and the private sector. This year it gathered practitioners from 10 countries.

The movement for evidence-informed policymaking is strengthened. Through the Center for Learning in Evaluation and Results for Latin America and the Caribbean (CLEAR-LAC), we are partnering with national governments in six countries in LAC to build and strengthen their evaluation and monitoring systems.   

We look forward to continuing to support governments and organizations in formulating evidence-based policies, always in collaboration with you, our present and future partners, to empower and enrich lives in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Paula Pedro
Executive Director, J-PAL LAC

J-PAL Latin America and the Caribbean leadership

J-PAL LAC in Review

Creating more jobs and opportunities in Brazil 

The Jobs and Opportunities Initiative in Brazil (JOI Brazil) celebrated its third anniversary, demonstrating the incredible value of direct funding and institutional collaboration with an in-country university like Insper in making a real difference in the research-to-policy pipeline. 

JOI Brazil’s research portfolio now includes seventeen funded projects involving 49 researchers, 69 percent of whom are from Brazil. In 2024, researchers explored topics from job creation to mental health. 

Also in 2024, one of the first research projects funded by the initiative, examining employment discrimination in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, was concluded and submitted for publication, presenting evidence that expected discrimination from job applicants regarding where they live can affect their job market outcomes.

Expanding early childhood development programs 

In Brazil, in collaboration with the Bracell Foundation and Itaú Social, we launched a program to identify, pilot, and eventually scale innovations that could positively contribute to the quality of preschool education in Brazil. 

The program was launched in July 2024 with J-PAL co-founder Esther Duflo delivering the keynote address. The project has Cristine Pinto, a J-PAL Affiliated Researcher, as Scientific Advisor; and a Committee of Experts, composed of Brazilian early childhood researchers. After offering trainings to implementing organizations and having a public call, key promising preschool programs were awarded funding to be evaluated next year.  

With a J-PAL LAC satellite office now in Guatemala, we have strengthened our collaboration with local researchers, government entities, and civil organizations. We have partnered with key government agencies such as the Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security, the Ministry of Social Development, and the Ministry of Education to improve data collection and evaluate ongoing programs. 

In the first year of J-PAL’s work in the country, with the advice of J-PAL affiliate Costas Meghir (Yale), we mapped out promising early childhood development (ECD) programs implemented by nonprofit organizations, supported their design, and are currently evaluating three different strategies, comparing their cost-effectiveness for scale.

Building the foundations for public policy labs within government organizations in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru

We are building a culture of evidence-informed innovation across the region, strengthening pathways for governments to establish dedicated units—sometimes known as embedded labs—to identify, test, and scale low-cost interventions to improve crucial issues.

In Brazil, we have been working with the National Care Secretariat by advising on the design of the National Care Plan, and hosting evidence-sharing events to bring together J-PAL researchers and government officials for research design and policy guidance. We are also supporting the launch of an Observatory with an attached CareLab that will focus on designing and piloting new programs and interventions. 

In Peru, with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), we are supporting the Peruvian Agency for Environmental Enforcement (OEFA) in installing an evaluation lab. In 2024 we developed the second innovation window to identify promising innovations to be tested. 

In Mexico, we partnered with the Secretariat of Planning of Querétaro to strengthen its processes and technical capacities for generating and applying evidence in policymaking across social programs. We launched the Evaluation of Public Policies (EVAPOP) processes, which are helping to rethink program design, such as finding more cost-effective ways to communicate the availability of health services and testing the impact of providing eyeglasses to primary school students to improve learning outcomes.

A shared vision for creating a culture of evidence use in LAC

In 2024, we celebrated fifteen years of establishing our office in Latin America and the Caribbean at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC Chile). In these years, we have celebrated agreements with the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala and with Insper in Brazil to establish a local footprint. That allows us not only to reduce the cost of research implementation but also contribute to building stronger foundations for engagement beyond research, fostering an ecosystem of local stakeholders that promotes a culture of evaluation.

The Year Ahead 

• Doubling down our efforts to support governments: In 2025, we aim to build new relationships with funders to keep developing government partnerships, to be used in creating new knowledge, establishing a learning cycle as part of their routines, and building specialized units for policy innovation in governments. The J-PAL LAC team is especially interested in generating topic-specific communities of practice for our partners. 
• Stimulating research around urgent and relevant topics: In 2025, we seek to renew JOI Brazil to take advantage of the mature pipeline, as well as other topics such as the impacts of artificial intelligence in education and the labor sector, gender, and diversity, and preventing crime and violence. We are working on a lab focusing on the intersection of jobs, social protection, climate, and nature in the eight countries that compose the Amazon Region. 
• Advancing the much-needed infrastructure to support researchers in the region: We seek to launch a J-PAL LAC Scholars Program to provide funding, mentorship, and training opportunities to these researchers. We are also working on unfolding a network of academic institutions, governments, and multilateral organizations around the world to offer high-quality training in rigorous impact evaluation and policy design.

In case you missed it: Highlights from 2024

• Evidence to Policy Case Study: Using artificial Intelligence to strengthen high school students writing skills
• Read our October Quarterly External Newsletter to catch up on the latest news.
• Dive into the evidence on effective policy approaches to improving job search, microcredit programs, and job training in Brazil, and implications for the country's labor markets.
   

J-PAL LAC's government partnerships

Lead photo credit: J-PAL