J-PAL Launches New Regional Research Center in Cairo at AUC to Help Improve Lives Across MENA Region

• Based at The American University in Cairo and in collaboration with global philanthropy Community Jameel, J-PAL MENA becomes J-PAL’s seventh regional office.
• The J-PAL MENA team will tackle some of the most complex and interconnected challenges preventing poverty alleviation in the region which have been exacerbated in recent months by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• J-PAL is led by Professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, recipients of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Cairo, Egypt, July 14, 2020: The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), together with the American University in Cairo (AUC), Community Jameel, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has announced the launch of a new regional research center in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) focused on alleviating poverty and improving lives through evidence-informed policymaking.

Based at the School of Business at The American University in Cairo and launched in collaboration with global philanthropy Community Jameel, J-PAL MENA becomes J-PAL’s seventh regional center. Since J-PAL launched at MIT in 2003 it has founded flagship research centers in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, South Asia, Southeast Asia.

J-PAL’s rigorous, scientific approach to evaluating social programs and policies helps shed light on the most effective approaches to reducing poverty. J-PAL MENA will bring this approach to the region, leading on three main activities:

1. Using the Nobel Prize-winning experimental approach to inform high-level decision-making;
2. Working with governments, NGOs, foundations, and other organizations to bridge the gap between research and policy; and
3. Leading training and workshops for policy professionals and researchers to help build a culture of evidence-informed policymaking across the region.

Through these core activities, J-PAL MENA will address some of the most complex and interconnected challenges causing poverty in the region, which have been exacerbated in recent months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Children in MENA have among the lowest learning outcomes, youth and women struggle to find quality employment, women’s agency is among the lowest in the world, environmental and energy resources are strained, and conflict has left many communities facing displacement and in need of humanitarian assistance.

 Speaking on behalf of J-PAL, Iqbal Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL, said:
"J-PAL’s regional offices are locally-grounded hubs for innovation, evaluation, and scaling. For almost fifteen years, our regional offices have forged close partnerships with governments, NGOs, and foundations and have supported the use of evidence in decision-making to improve the lives of tens of millions. With the launch of J-PAL MENA, I am thrilled that J-PAL will have a permanent home in the region and deepen our work with committed partners in Egypt and across MENA.”

Sherif Kamel, Dean of AUC’s School of Business, said: “We are proud to be the home of J-PAL MENA, leveraging AUC’s long history of engaging in cutting-edge policy-relevant research. With J-PAL MENA we aim to build an ecosystem for evidence-based policy, crowding in regional academics and training future development researchers, forging partnerships with policymakers, and bridging the gap between academic research and policymakers in the region.”

Speaking on behalf of Community Jameel, the global philanthropy that has worked in partnership and supported J-PAL since 2005, President, International Fady Jameel, said: “The concept of supporting communities has been in the family’s heritage for 75 years and this same concept has been key to J-PAL’s work around the world since it was founded in 2003. The announcement of the new office in Cairo will be instrumental in bringing J-PAL’s evidence-informed approach to our home region, which uses randomized evaluations to identify programs that can have the biggest positive impact on the most vulnerable communities in MENA.”

“With endless energy and ingenuity, Community Jameel continues to help MIT find new ways to spur positive change for vulnerable communities around the world,” says MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “J-PAL’s expansion into the MENA region comes at an opportune moment, when the COVID-19 pandemic is having especially devastating effects on those living in poverty. Reflecting the bold and generous spirit of the Jameel family, J-PAL MENA will be a catalyst for research, partnerships and programs that will improve people’s lives.”

The launch of J-PAL MENA builds on several years of collaboration among J-PAL and AUC. J-PAL MENA will be led by Scientific Directors Bruno Crépon, Professor of Economics and Econometrics at ENSAE and École Polytechnique, and Adam Osman, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

J-PAL MENA will seek talented development economists and policy professionals to further expand its team. This team, together with J-PAL’s professional staff, regional academics, and policymakers, will generate timely and useful research to improve policy and reduce poverty across the MENA region.

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Eliza Keller
Policy & Communications Manager, J-PAL

 

About J-PAL
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 190 affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. We build partnerships with governments, NGOs, donors, and others to share this knowledge, scale up effective programs, and advance evidence-informed decision-making. J-PAL was launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003 and has regional centers in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. For more information, visit povertyactionlab.org.

About Community Jameel
Community Jameel is a global philanthropy that seeks to innovate for a better future. It was formally institutionalised in 2003, to continue the tradition of supporting communities started by the late Abdul Latif Jameel in Jeddah in 1945. This year marks 75 years since that tradition began and Community Jameel now works across six major fields of development: livelihoods, the arts, education, health, climate, and research. Community Jameel is active worldwide, directly implementing programmes and collaborating with major international institutions and grassroots organisations to help solve the challenges facing the world today.

About The American University in Cairo
Founded in 1919, AUC is a leading English-language, American-accredited institution of higher education and center of intellectual, social and cultural life of the Arab world. The University stands as a crossroads for the world’s cultures and a vibrant forum for reasoned argument, spirited debate and understanding across the diversity of languages, facilities and human experiences. An independent, nonprofit, politically non-partisan, non-sectarian and equal opportunity institution, AUC is fully accredited in Egypt and the United States. The University offers 36 undergraduate, 44 master’s and two PhD programs rooted in a liberal arts education that encourages students to think critically and find creative solutions to conflicts and challenges facing both the region and the world. It also offers a globally recognized professional community-based education in English to meet the needs of the dynamic Egyptian and broader regional economies. The University’s educational assets include the largest English-language academic library collection in Egypt, three modern theaters and 15 cross-disciplinary research centers. The University’s modern, 260-acre New Cairo campus constitutes a visionary investment in the future of Cairo, Egypt and the region — a state-of-the-art facility for advanced research, innovative teaching, lifelong learning and civic engagement.