Training at J-PAL Africa

The J-PAL Africa training team organises in-person trainings, online courses and customised workshops for researchers, policymakers and program implementers on the design and implementation of randomized evaluations on the continent.

This page refers to capacity building activities undertaken by the J-PAL Africa office. To learn about J-PAL courses elsewhere in the world, as well as online course offerings, please visit our Global training page. 

In-Person Open Enrollment Courses

Evaluating Social Programs

This five-day, in-person training provides an in-depth look at 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.

Taught by J-PAL affiliated professors and senior staff, the course is tailored to the needs of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from NGOs, governments, international organizations, private sector companies, and foundations from around the world.

Learn more about the Evaluating Social Programs course here, or have a look at lectures and materials from the 2016 course run in Cape Town, South Africa. For those who cannot attend the ESP course in-person, we have lecture recordings, slides, and case study materials for most of the ESP sessions in J-PAL's Teaching Resources.

Conducting Experimental Research

This course is for African PhD students and researchers in economics (or a closely related field) based at universities in sub-Saharan Africa with an interest in using randomized evaluations to evaluate programs and policies. Taught by J-PAL affiliated professors and senior staff, this course aims to strengthen the knowledge and further develop the good practices of participants who are already well-versed in the methodological foundations of impact evaluations. Participants learn about needs assessments, advanced randomization methods, sample size calculations, and how to mitigate threats to validity. Participants also receive guidance on drafting funding proposals, with the goal of equipping them to apply for proposal development or pilot grants for an RCT after the course. Learn more about the 2024 Conducting Experimental Research (CER) course here.

Custom Courses

Evidence to Policy Courses

These customised courses aim to build the ability of policymakers and practitioners to decipher between good and bad evidence and share structured ways of thinking about when and how to use evidence from one context to inform policy in another. The courses include interactive case studies based on research from the J-PAL network in which participants work through how to apply global evidence to local challenges. View lectures and materials from our 2015 Impact Evaluation Course for Zambian policymakers and practitioners. 

Theory of Change workshops 

These customised workshops are developed for government partners with whom we are working on evidence-informed scale ups. The workshops aim to build the skills of these partners in developing theories of change and using them to inform their subsequent evaluation strategies.

Online Courses

MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP)

The DEDP MicroMasters program is a collaboration between J-PAL, MIT Economics, and MITx. Through a series of six online courses, learners gain a strong foundation in microeconomics, development economics, and data analysis. Learners who receive the MicroMasters credential are eligible to apply to an accelerated Master's program at MIT. Learn more about the DEDP MicroMasters program here and MIT’s new DEDP Master’s here.

Leveraging the DEDP MicroMasters course content in university curricula

Universities may be interested in leveraging the online content of the DEDP MicroMasters. If you are a representative of a university and interested in learning more about how this could be structured, please contact Clare Hofmeyr. 

For more information on training at J-PAL Africa, please contact Clare Hofmeyr.