Training Researchers, Policymakers, and Practitioners

ESP Group Work

We work to foster an environment of evidence-informed decision-making throughout the region by training implementers and policymakers on how to become better producers and users of evidence from impact evaluations. Learn more about offerings and explore past events below.

Latest Capacity Building Milestones

Capacity Building Offerings to Partners

Evaluating Social Programs Course (ESP)

  • Equips participants with the tools to rigorously assess the impact of programs and policies using randomized evaluations.
  • Designed for policymakers, practitioners, and implementing organizations who are committed to actively exploring, planning, or implementing randomized impact evaluations with J-PAL MENA.

  • Provides a comprehensive and thorough explanation of the full randomized impact evaluation cycle. 

    Learn more about key concepts covered and participants’ experiences here. Note: This is an invitation only closed-door course. 

Leading for Evidence Informed Decision Making (LEID)

  • A half-day event led by J-PAL MENA staff, tailored to the partner’s schedule and sectoral priorities.
  • It offers a concise, high-level overview for senior officials and decision-makers on generating and using evidence, with a focus on how rigorous research can support the organization’s ongoing efforts to inform national policy.

Foundations of Randomized Evaluations (FRE)

  • This training is a simplified version of our Evaluating Social Programs (ESP) course. It provides an overview of why and when randomized evaluations can be used to rigorously measure social impact, methods, and considerations for their design and implementation, and how findings can inform evidence-based policies and programs. 

Data Collection for Randomized Evaluations

  • Three-day capacity-building workshop for data collection firms across Egypt and MENA—whether or not they have previously partnered with J-PAL MENA.
  • Designed to strengthen organizational-level capacity to carry out high-quality, ethical, and technically sound data collection for randomized evaluations.
  • Topics include questionnaire design, piloting questionnaires, strategies to reduce measurement error, ethical standards for impact evaluations, digital data collection tools, interviewing techniques, and real-world fieldwork scenarios explored through role-play.

Surveyor Training for J-PAL MENA Impact Evaluations

  • Training for individual surveyors (enumerators) already contracted for J-PAL MENA fieldwork for specific studies.
  • Delivers a condensed, tailored version of the firm training, focused on the enumerator’s role in a particular evaluation.
  • Repeated at each project phase—baseline, midline, and endline—and is tailored to the needs of the specific study.
  • Covers ethical practices, survey tool use, interviewing, and key protocols

 

Capacity Building Offerings to Academics

MENA Scholars Fellowship Program (MSF): A two-year program that offers fellows the opportunity to work on randomized evaluations, with mentorship and guidance from J-PAL affiliated professors. Fellows join J-PAL’s global network of scholars by enrolling in MIT’s MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy, participating in training sessions and workshops led by J-PAL MENA staff, and presenting at regional policy events. Learn more about MSF here »